West Coast football fan planning game days: When do California college football teams kick off the 2026 season?

[DEboRa]

Football season can't come soon enough! I'm already planning my game days and need to know when California college football teams kick off the 2026 season. I follow USC, UCLA, Cal, and Stanford, and the start dates are all over the place.

USC opens early with a Week Zero game on August 29 at the Coliseum . UCLA and Cal kick off against each other on September 5 in Berkeley . Stanford also has a Week Zero game on August 29 against Hawaii . San Diego State starts later, traveling to UCLA on September 12 . If you're like me and want to catch multiple teams, you could do Stanford on August 29 and then Cal-UCLA on September 5. Anyone else planning to hit these games? Have kickoff times been announced yet?

 

[Isabella]

I've been obsessively tracking this since the schedules dropped. Here's the full picture:

Week Zero (Aug 29):

• USC vs TBD at Coliseum
• Stanford vs Hawaii at Stanford Stadium

Sept 5:

• Cal vs UCLA in Berkeley (season opener for both)
• Also SDSU vs Portland State at home (if you want more football)

Sept 12:

• SDSU at UCLA
• Cal at Syracuse (away)

The bad news: Zero kickoff times announced yet. Every single official release says times/TV will come later . Usually we start seeing them in May/June, with some early-season games potentially getting locked in earlier for TV.

Your Stanford→Cal-UCLA plan is solid! That's a manageable drive between games. I'm thinking about doing USC Week Zero then heading up for the Cal-UCLA game the next week.