With the United Athletic Conference's announcement of the addition of the University of West Florida as a football-playing affiliate, the UAC has released the updated 2026 football schedule.
The full conference slate has been beneficial for the UAC with five teams garnering invitations to the FCS Playoffs the past two seasons including four teams earning home game duties. This season, UAC co-champions Tarleton State (No. 4) and Abilene Christian (No. 10) both boasted Top 10 seedings following a highly competitive league schedule. The conference saw eight different teams receive votes in the national rankings during the season and consistently saw three teams listed in the Top 25 each week.
While the first Saturday of college football starts on August 29, the first UAC game of the 2026 season will come in week one when Central Arkansas welcomes newcomer UWF to Conway on Saturday, September 5. From there, the ball gets rolling as Austin Peay will head to Pensacola to take on West Florida in week three before the full slate of UAC games starts on Saturday, October 3.
The home stretch month of November is packed with high-intensity Saturdays full of UAC battles leading up to the FCS regular season finales Nov. 21. One of the final highlights is the Nov. 7 "Lone Star" rematch between 2025 co-champions Abilene Christian and Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas. The FCS Playoff field will be selected on Nov. 22 with opening round games of the championship set for Nov. 28.
Featuring an automatic qualifier (AQ) into the FCS playoff each of the past three years, the UAC kicks off its new look era with eight football participating institutions: Abilene Christian University, Austin Peay State University, University of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky University, University of North Alabama, Tarleton State University, University of West Florida, and University of West Georgia.
2026 United Athletic Conference Football Schedule (game times TBA)
Saturday, Sept. 5 (Week 1)
West Florida at Central Arkansas
Saturday, Sept. 19 (Week 3)
Austin Peay at West Florida
Saturday, Oct. 3 (Week 5)
West Florida at Abilene Christian
North Alabama at EKU
Saturday, Oct. 10 (Week 6)
Central Arkansas at Abilene Christian
Tarleton State at Austin Peay
West Georgia at EKU
Saturday, Oct. 17 (Week 7)
Abilene Christian at North Alabama
Austin Peay at West Georgia
Central Arkansas at Tarleton State
Saturday, Oct. 24 (Week 8)
Austin Peay at North Alabama
West Florida at EKU
Tarleton State at West Georgia
Saturday, Oct. 31 (Week 9)
West Georgia at Abilene Christian
North Alabama at Central Arkansas
EKU at Tarleton State
Saturday, Nov. 7 (Week 10)
Abilene Christian at Tarleton State
EKU at Austin Peay
West Georgia at Central Arkansas
West Florida at North Alabama
Saturday, Nov. 14 (Week 11)
Abilene Christian at Austin Peay
Central Arkansas at EKU
North Alabama at West Georgia
Tarleton State at West Florida
Saturday, Nov. 21 (Week 12)
EKU at Abilene Christian
Austin Peay at Central Arkansas
Tarleton State at North Alabama
West Florida at West Georgia
UNITED ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
The United Athletic Conference (UAC) was established in 2023 as a single-sport football conference through a partnership between the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which will rebrand to the United Athletic Conference (UAC) beginning July 1, 2026 with a strategic consortium between the ASUN and UAC. The 2026-27 season will feature eight football-playing member institutions: Abilene Christian University (Abilene, Texas),
Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, Tenn.), the
University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Ark.),
Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, Ky.), the
University of North Alabama (Florence, Ala.),
Tarleton State University (Stephenville, Texas), the
University of West Georgia (Carrollton, Ga.) and the
University of West Florida (Pensacola, Fla.).