Samantha Cantu/THE RIDER
UTRGV Athletics announced an update to the Football schedule for the 2026-2029 seasons in a March 25 news release. The Vaqueros will now average six home games over the next four seasons.
California State University, Sacramento was scheduled to play UTRGV Sept. 26. The Hornets will reclassify to Football Bowl Subdivision from Football Championship Subdivision, which caused the schedule change.
The week of Sept. 26 will now be a bye week for UTRGV. The Vaqueros will instead visit the University of Central Arkansas on Oct. 24 at Estes Stadium in Conway, Arkansas.
Jonah Goldberg, senior associate athletic director for Communications and Championships, said when the invitation to join the Football Bowl Subdivision level came, the scheduling needed to change.
“Now, they were jumping to FBS,” Goldberg said. “… So, rather than wanting to play FCS opponents, they needed to be able to completely change everything. … So now, they need to be playing an FBS schedule, which you can still play an FCS school when you’re FBS. But you typically don’t try to play more than one because one will help you for bowl eligibility.”
UTRGV has added home games, with Prairie View A&M University coming down to the Rio Grande Valley in 2027 and 2029. Central Arkansas will also come down to Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium in 2028.
The Vaqueros’ schedule also includes Texas A&M University-Kingsville at Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium and Texas State University at UFCU Stadium in San Marcos, both taking place in 2027. In 2028, the Vaqueros will travel to Houston to take on Rice University, then to San Marcos to take on Texas State in 2030.
“We’re not anticipating any further changes,” Goldberg said. “This [2026] schedule is the schedule that we anticipate playing. And then, you know, if you look ahead at 2027 and 2028, we don’t anticipate any real changes there either because, you know, contracts are signed. So, we’re just waiting on our conference schedule. So really, ’29 and ’30 only have one game each. So, we need to find two more non-conference games in each of those two years. But you know, we’re pretty well set for the next three years.”
