Click HERE for 2026 NEC Football Schedule Graphic

Bridgewater, NJ — The NEC announced the league slate for the upcoming 2026 football season on Monday. The schedule will provide seven conference games per squad, as each of the eight teams that comprise the league will face each other one time throughout the campaign.
 
Two teams waste little time to jump into NEC play as Robert Morris and Wagner kick off the league slate on Opening Weekend with a showdown in Grymes Hill on Saturday, Aug. 29. 
 
Five other squads will also make their 2026 season debuts during the first weekend of the new campaign, highlighted by Central Connecticut and LIU, which will head to Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) powerhouses South Dakota (Sat., Aug. 29) and North Dakota (Thurs., Aug. 27), respectively. Both opponents finished in the top-15 of the final iteration of the Stats Perform FCS rankings, with the Coyotes checking in at No. 9 and the Fighting Hawks ranking No. 14 at season’s end. 

The Blue Devils and Sharks will be tested once again by FCS powers in the second month of the campaign. Central Connecticut is set to do battle with 2025 FCS Championship runner-up Montana State on Saturday, Sept. 19, the same day that LIU is slated to host Villanova, a squad that made a run to the semifinals of the FCS Playoffs a year ago.
 
Stonehill and New Haven dive into conference play in West Haven, CT on Saturday, Sept. 5. The contest will be a historic one for the Nutmeg State squad as the Chargers, who competed as an FCS Independent in football last season, will be playing a full NEC slate for the first time in 2026.
 
Following a three-week hiatus, NEC play starts to ramp up in the first weekend of October. Four of eight teams hit the gridiron for league tilts, including Central Connecticut, which begins the quest for an NEC Championship three-peat by hosting Wagner on Saturday, Oct. 3. LIU and Mercyhurst — two teams that were in the NEC title race conversation headed into the penultimate week of the 2025 campaign — start their respective conference slates with a league battle in Brookville.
 
After Duquesne and LIU take the turf in Brookville on Saturday, Oct. 10, the league slate goes into full swing the following weekend on Saturday, Oct. 17 with all eight teams in action. Highlighting the fifth NEC game day is a rivalry between LIU and Wagner. The two squads will duke it out in Brookville for New York area bragging rights.
 
Four of the final five Saturdays of the regular season will field full four-game slates (Oct. 24, Nov. 7, Nov. 14 and Nov. 21).
 
A Steele City showdown between longtime rivals Duquesne and Robert Morris is set to go down on Saturday, Nov. 7 in The Bluff. With back-to-back wins in 2024 and 2025, the Dukes have reigned supreme in the intracity battle with an 8-1 advantage over the Colonials since 2013.
 
Speaking of rivalries, Central Connecticut and Duquesne are set to meet in New Britain on the final day of the 2026 regular season on Saturday, Nov. 21. 
 
The two squads — who have claimed the league’s past three AQs to the FCS Playoffs with the Dukes doing so in 2023 and the Blue Devils earning berths in 2024 and 2025 — have created some drama in the NEC title race in each of the past two years. In 2024, Central Connecticut disrupted Duquesne’s perfect record in conference play with a win on the final day of the regular season to clinch the NEC’s AQ, while last season, the Dukes forced a must-win regular season finale for the Blue Devils against Mercyhurst after they handed the Nutmeg State team their first NEC loss. 
 
Core members Central Connecticut, LIU, Stonehill and Wagner — along with affiliates Duquesne and Robert Morris — will vie for an automatic bid to the 2026 Division I FCS Playoffs, which kick off on Saturday, Nov. 28.

Mercyhurst, which went 4-3 in its first-ever full slate as an NEC member in 2025, and New Haven both remain ineligible for the FCS Playoffs in 2026 due to their current status as NCAA Division I reclassifying instutitions. 
 
During non-conference play, Mercyhurst, Duquesne Stonehill and New Haven will also face FCS squads that closed out their respective 2025 campaigns ranked in the Top-25 of the Stats Perform FCS Poll. The Lakers will battle No. 18 Youngstown State on Opening Day (Aug. 29), while the Dukes (Youngstown State), the Skyhawks (No. 23 New Hampshire) and the Chargers (No. 13 South Dakota State) will be dealt contests against top-25 opponents on Saturday, Sept. 12.
 
NEC teams will also face 14 FBS opponents during the 2026 regular-season slate, including teams from the ACC (Cal), Big 12 (Kansas, West Virginia), Conference USA (New Mexico State, Western Kentucky), Mountain West (New Mexico) and the MAC (Akron, Buffalo, UMass, Ohio, Toledo)
 
About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 45th season, the NEC is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of ten institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Chicago (#3), Boston (#9). Hartford/New Haven (#32) and Syracuse (#88). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 25 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 16 different NCAA Championships. NEC full member institutions include Central Connecticut, Chicago State, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Mercyhurst, New Haven, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league's official website (www.necsports.com) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.