Multiple kickoff times and TV networks announced for 2026 Stanford football schedule
The Stanford football schedule is already out and now we are starting to see more of the pieces fall into place: Stanford has announced the kickoff times and TV networks for select games.
GoStanford.com: 2026 Stanford Football Schedule
On Saturday, August 29th, Stanford will welcome Hawaii to The Farm at 4:00 PM PT on ACC Network. On Friday, September 4th, Stanford will welcome Miami to The Farm at 6:00 PM PT (TV TBD). On Saturday, September 19th, Stanford will play at Duke at 1:00 PM PT on The CW.
On Saturday, September 26th, Stanford will welcome Georgia Tech to The Farm for a game under the lights at 7:30 PM PT on ESPN. On Saturday, October 12th, Stanford will play at Notre Dame at 12:00 PM PT on NBC. And then on Friday, October 23rd, Stanford will welcome NC State to The Farm for a night game at 7:30 PM PT on ESPN.
The rest of the games have had their dates announced, but not yet the kickoff times/TV details. It will certainly be interesting to see how the rest of the schedules takes shape and what the mix looks like between early, mid-day, and night games.
As for what has already been revealed, one thing that should be known is earlier on, the NC State game was labeled as either Friday, October 23rd or Saturday, October 24th. They’ve now settled on that being a Friday game. That means two Friday games on the docket for the Cardinal. The next game after the Miami game will be the Duke game 15 days later, so getting the extra day there doesn’t mean much since there’s a bye week the weekend of September 12th. However, the NC State game will give the Cardinal an extra day to rest in advance of the Saturday, October 31st game at Louisville. So that will be nice to get that extra day of recovery.
While we are of course talking recent history, the night games on The Farm for Stanford typically give them an edge against East Coast teams. Not just in football, but in many sports. Even a 6:00 PM PT kickoff time is 9:00 PM ET and then a 7:30 PM PT kickoff time is 10:30 PM ET. It’s just hard for East Coast teams to start a game at a time that their bodies are used to wrapping up a game at.
As for the two road games that have had kickoff times announced, 12:00 PM PT at Notre Dame and 1:00 PM PT at Duke isn’t bad. Stanford has had home games kickoff around the same time in the past. What you want to avoid is 9:00 AM PT or even 10:00 AM PT kickoff times. The absence of any early morning windows is so far a good sign for Stanford though it’s early yet.
As far as what games are yet to be announced with respect to kickoff times, below is that list in case you are curious: Saturday, October 3rd at Wake Forest. Saturday, October 17th vs. Elon. Saturday, October 31st Louisville. Saturday, November 14th at Virginia Tech. Saturday, November 21st at Cal. Saturday, November 28th vs. SMU.
The one I’m always most interested to see is Big Game (Cal). This year will be the 129th Big Game and the first meeting between Tavita Pritchard (Stanford) and Tosh Lupoi (Cal). Stanford will look to retain The Axe for a second straight season. Kickoff times for that game are always hard to predict. Some years they get slotted in the early afternoon around 1:00 PM PT. Other years they get the late afternoon slot around 4:30 PM PT. And then some years like last year get the 7:30 PM PT kickoff time. Personally, I like the 4:30 PM PT kickoff times the best for Big Game, but whenever it starts, it’s always a good time.
I have more thoughts coming on the schedule once it all finalizes, but for now, you can at least get some of your Fridays and Saturdays in the late summer and fall figured out. It’s always fun to know football season is just around the corner and at Cardinal Sports Report, we’ll keep you dialed in on all things Stanford as the season approaches.
Note: Cardinal Sports Report has you covered for all the latest news on Stanford as they begin the Tavita Pritchard era.
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