Temple football to start season against Rhode Island

In 2025, the Temple Owls showed some improvement under new head coach K.C. Keeler.

The Owls, who won only three games in 2024, won five under Keeler in 2025 and are looking to improve on that in 2026.

On Thursday, the American Conference announced its 2026 football schedule.

The Temple Football season will get underway on Saturday, Sept. 5, when the Owls host the Rhode Island Rams at Lincoln Financial Field.

Temple will start the season with five of seven games at home. Following the Rhode Island opener, the Owls will face Penn State.  Trips to Toledo and South Florida sandwich the American Conference opener for Temple at home versus Army. Back-to-back home games against UConn and Charlotte occur before the bye week.

Following the break, the Owls play consecutive games on the road (East Carolina and Navy) and a pair at home (UAB and Rice), before closing out the season at Memphis (either Friday or Saturday, November 27-28).

The matchup against Rice – the first ever between the two Owls teams – will be on Thursday night, November 19. Rhode Island and UAB will also be making their Lincoln Financial Field debuts. 

Ten of Temple’s 12 opponents played in the postseason a year ago (all but Charlotte and UAB).

Four matchups are a repeat of last year – Army, Navy, Charlotte, and East Carolina – and although the Owls were just 1-3 in those games, they outscored those opponents 107-105 in the four games.

Kickoff times for the first three weeks of the season will be finalized by June 1. The rest of the schedule will fall under the customary 12-day and six-day selection processes.

Each of the 14 teams in The American will play eight conference games in 2026.

Here is the complete schedule below:

Date		Opponent (2025 results)
Sat., Sept. 5		Rhode Island (11-3)
Sat., Sept. 12		Penn State (7-6)
Sat., Sept. 19		at Toledo (8-5)
Sat., Sept. 26	*	Army (7-6)
Sat., Oct. 3	*	at South Florida (9-4)
Sat., Oct. 10		UConn (9-4)
Sat., Oct. 17	*	Charlotte (1-11)
Sat., Oct. 24		BYE
Sat., Oct. 31	*	at East Carolina (9-4)
Sat., Nov. 7	*	at Navy (11-2)
Sat., Nov. 14	*	UAB (4-8)
Thur., Nov 19	*	Rice (5-8)
Fri./Sat., Nov. 27/28	*	at Memphis (8-5)