San Diego State’s 2026 football schedule has been officially released for the new Pac-12 season and it was met with excitement and intrigue from Aztec Andy. The team’s 9-4 season was a dramatic turnaround for head coach Sean Lewis’ 2nd year on the Mesa. A fresh start in a new conference just adds to the excitement for the 3rd.
September 5 – FCS Portland State
Portland the land of weird beards, lots of bicycles, and strip clubs, do they even really play college football there? The Vikings finished last season 1-11. The previous two of that—3-8 and 5-6. The Vikings will be coming to San Diego with a new head coach Chris Fisk and it will be a tall task to go up against the Aztecs. This is a theme SDSU will have to their advantage this season that we’ll conclude with.
The following weekend SDSU then travels up a few hours to take on UCLA. Wether this game takes place in the Rose Bowl or SoFi is TBD, but what really adds interest to this matchup was knowing of all the midseason reports of Sean Lewis’ name thrown up for the UCLA job once the Bruins relieved last year’s head coach Deshaun Foster of his duties just a few games in. The Bruins ended up hiring JMU HC last year Bob Chesney and he will be in his first season there in Westwood. For as good of a coach as Chesney seems to be leading last year’s Duke’s to the CFP, our Aztecs may be getting the Bruins at the perfect time.
So speaking of JMU, they’re fresh off their CFP invite last season in which they lost to Oregon. Then they lost their head coach to UCLA as we just mentioned. The Dukes will be playing San Diego State for the first time in week 3 and they will be led by new HC Brian Napier. He’s most known of his time at Florida and the University of Louisiana (formerly Louisiana Lafayette). Still trying to find out what the heck stemming is. Another first year head coach at that particular program. If SDSU can begin the season at 2-0, this game gets really exciting at Snapdragon Stadium.
End of September the Aztecs take their annual business trip to the Midwest when they go to the Glass Bowl in Toledo, Ohio and face the Rockets. This won’t be a gimme. Toledo is coming off back to back 8-5 seasons that were proceeded by 11-3 and 9-5. They are a legitimate program that is tough at home. But they also have a new head coach in Mike Jacobs. The former coach Jason Candle left for UConn. Good thing Sean Lewis is familiar with the MAC and he should have an edge there despite this one being on the road.
Now to the good stuff.
The Aztecs host the newest football member to join the Pac-12 when they welcome the fun fanbase from San Marcos, TX—the Texas State Bobcats. HC G.J. Kinne will be on his 4th season at the helm and his well respected program will probably travel very well for this one. The Bobcats under Kinne put up back to back 8-5 seasons before last year’s underachieving 7-6 campaign. Hopefully just a blip on their recent radar. It’s been fun to watch this group from afar elevate their brand of football and join the conference. For being the first official Pac-12 matchup scheduled for both the Aztecs and Bobcats, it will be an exciting matchup to face this new Texas brand trying to make a name for themselves. We just can’t wait to make the return visit as both of these programs have the potential for a very nice friendly rivalry and destination cities for the Pac-12. Oh heck enough with the pleasantries—just wait til the first unnecessary roughness call and these two sides will start spinning the hate wheel that needs to be turning. LFGoooooo!
The Beavers host the Aztecs back at Reser Stadium and the Aztecs can only hope to make this trip better than it has been. The Aztecs do not perform well against the Beavs and their 2 wins to 5 losses proves it. This game early on in the conference schedule could be the time to reverse those fortunes. The Beavs are bad. Real bad. And dysfunctional. We’ll see if OSU can wake up from their nightmare of getting forgotten from the previous Pac-12 in time to put a competitive team together against Sean Lewis’ squad. JaMarcus Shepard is the Beavs new head coach this year. Is there an echo in here?
October 17 – vs Cal State Fresno
The Aztecs have rivalry week early this year and will be trying to go for 3 games in a row in which they hold onto the Old Oil Can. Last year the red & black shut out them Bulldogs. You read that right. A big ol fat zero for them dogs. Just the way we like it. This will be a game the Bulldogs have been chewing on the bone about. And we’re just talking about their women. Who knows what those bad hombres down there in the Valley have been up to all this time since then. This one will without a doubt be a very, very big game at. a critical point in the season. Home field advantage hopefully kicks in at this point. But maybe JD Wicker needs to keep the ticket pricing high just to keep those stray dogs away from buying up any tickets in our lovely home.
October 24 – at Colorado State
Fort Collins in late Octeober is glorious. This will be a great road trip if you can make it. CSU is also trying to bounce back from a disastrous year that saw them hire Jim Mora Jr. in the off season. Look for improvement, but also go to this game to stop at Bucee’s and enjoy an Aztecs victory.
October 31 – vs Washington State
This one Lewis has to be circling on his calendar. In his first year on the Mesa, Wazzu’s QB Johna Mateer made the Aztecs pay late in a game they had no business coming back from and beating SDSU in. Last season they jumped all over an Aztecs squad that just hand’t come together yet. Wazzu is also with a new head coach this season when they hired Kirby Moore who spent the past three seasons serving as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at the University of Missouri. The former Boise State WR is brother of Kellen Moore and so this adds some intrigue to the Pac-12 and it’s new rivalries. Either way this is a perfect payback game for this SDSU team to get their stuff together and elevate their season into a legitimate contender.
Nothing l like much more than beating some Aggies. At any sport really. I won’t ever be happy they snuck into the Pac-12 but here we are. The Aztecs didn’t play them last season when HC Bronco Mendenhall took over, but he’s got them looking real nice as the year progressed. The Aggies came within one point of last year’s MW Computer Champion Boise State, beat Fresno State on the road, and then lost in double overtime to the other MW Computer Championship participant UNLV. He’s a really solid coach with Rocky Long ties and we all know and respect that. This game may have championship implications. Again, thankfully some home field advantage kicks in again.
Another payback game is in order. Though Boise State always packs a tough team to do that to. Yes the Aztecs beat the Broncos at home last season. But that was without their starting QB. No excuses, but this time around to do it on the blue would be even sweeter. Of course a late November game in Idaho is not idea. Temperatures will be cold and it will really put Sean Lewis’ team to the test. Something tells me the Pac-12 sees this matchup as a bigger rivalry than some may give credit for.
This whole FLEX Game option is a bit of a wild card. For now it is a road game for the Aztecs no matter who they end up playing. We’ll get into explaining it in full at another time very soon, but what we do know is that it counts as a non-conference game but it will be against a conference opponent. Okay.
Just know this is where the Pac-12 is attempting to either be innovative or they got caught with their pants down when Memphis continued to give them the cold shoulder. Not having 9-10 teams for football is a problem. I don’t like it and neither should you. UNLV would be wiser to join in but they continue to gamble with their future.
So what are we to do? Maybe this quirk will create some interest for the new revised conference, but until we get comfortable with this idea of a flex game, it may just come across a little gimmicky.
December 4 – Pac-12 Championship
In conclusion the running theme is that seven teams of the eleven they know of so far that the Aztecs face this season will be in their first year on the job. That is a major advantage for Sean Lewis who knows all too well the struggles that adjustment can bring.
Other than that, the toughest games against teams with returning head coaches are home vs Texas State, home vs Valley Children’s State, home vs Utah State, and on the road vs Boise State. These will be the 50/50 games that might just determine wether the Aztecs are playing in Pac-12 Championship on Friday, December 4th.
Unless a computer decides to interfere again.
Ugh, never again please.
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