Three CFP teams from last season — Indiana, Oregon and Texas Tech — will be part of Fox’s beefed-up Friday night college football lineup this fall.
In the third season of placing Friday games on its broadcast network, Fox increased its lineup from nine games to 12. They include the Missouri-Kansas Border War in Week 2, a potential Top 25 matchup in Week 3 between Texas Tech and Houston and Penn State visiting Northwestern on Oct. 2 in the Wildcats’ first game at their new stadium.
Other Friday contests include defending national champion Indiana’s Big Ten opener against Northwestern on Sept. 26, Iowa at Washington on Oct. 9 and Oregon at Michigan State on Nov. 20.
Fox 2026 Friday CFB schedule
Sept. 4
Fresno State at USC
9 p.m.
Sept. 11
Missouri at Kansas
8 p.m.
Sept. 18
Houston at Texas Tech
8 p.m
Sept. 25
Northwestern at Indiana
8 p.m.
Oct. 2
Penn State at Northwestern
8 p.m.
Oct. 9
Iowa at Washington
9 p.m.*
Oct. 16
Washington at Purdue
8 p.m.
Nov. 6
Nebraska at Illinois
8 p.m.
Nov. 13
Illinois at UCLA
9 p.m.
Nov. 20
Oregon at Michigan State
8 p.m.
Nov. 27
West Virginia at Utah
8 or 9 p.m.
Dec. 4
Mountain West championship
9 p.m.
*May move to FS1 due to MLB playoffs
Friday games have at times drawn backlash from coaches and fans, but Fox touts that the slot averaged higher audience numbers last season (2.3 million) than its Saturday mid-afternoon (2.1 million) or Saturday primetime (1.9 million) games, per Nielsen data.
“It provides opportunities for teams to be the marquee game on a Friday night, versus on Saturday, you’d be competing against other marquee games,” said Derek Crocker, Fox’s senior vice president for college sports. “It’s a huge advantage for a school, from an opportunity to showcase them on a national stage.”
Texas Tech board chair and mega-booster Cody Campbell apparently doesn’t agree. Upon learning in late March of Fox’s interest in moving Tech’s home date with Houston to Friday, he sent an angry tweet calling the decision “absurd” and criticizing the Big 12, Fox and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark.
Yormark responded a few days later, telling the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, “Cody Campbell does not run the Big 12.”
ESPN has long aired Friday games, many of which feature ACC teams. That conference has already announced a full-season Friday lineup, beginning with Miami at Stanford on Sept. 4 (all networks will be announced at a later date).
However, Fox was the first to move Friday college football games to a broadcast network in 2024, after its five-year deal with WWE ended. A spokesperson said the college football package led all four networks on Fridays in the 18-49 demographic.
“A large majority of these games, if they weren’t on Friday on our biggest platform, they probably end up on cable or streaming,” Crocker said. “The difference there is obviously huge from an exposure standpoint to both the schools and the conferences.”
Fox, ESPN and the other major networks are expected to announce their full early-season schedules and other special dates by the end of May.