American Conference Announces 2026 Football Opponents

IRVING, Texas – The American Conference has announced the scheduling model for conference games that will be in place for the 2026 season. The scheduling model was approved by The American's athletic directors last week.

East Carolina will host Florida Atlantic, Rice, South Florida and Temple inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium next fall, while traveling to Army, Charlotte, Memphis and UAB. Specific dates for those matchups will be announced in February in conjunction with the league's annual full schedule release.

Also, on the Pirates schedule in 2026 are non-conference games against Alabama (road, Sept. 5), Appalachian State (home, Sept. 12), Old Dominion (away, Sept. 19) and N.C. Central (home, Sept. 26).

The 2026 season will once again see all 14 American teams play eight conference games, with four home games and four road dates for each team.

The scheduling format fulfills a number of strategic and practical objectives set by the conference. There are no repeat matchups played at the same site from 2025 to 2026, and no team will avoid a particular opponent in consecutive years. Each team will play at at least one road game in the Eastern and Central time zones and will have at least one road game in the state of Texas in a two-year span. The top two teams in the final regular-season standings will qualify for the American Conference Championship Game – site to be determined.

EAST CAROLINA
Home: Florida Atlantic, Rice, South Florida, Temple
Away: Army, Charlotte, Memphis, UAB

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