Cal Opens 2026 Football Season With a Night Game Against UCLA

Starting times for Cal’s first five games are set, and two home games in that span are at night

Cal opens against UCLA under the lights | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Cal’s 2026 football opener, which will be the Bears' first game under new head coach Tosh Lupoi, will be a night game in Berkeley against Cal's former Pac-12 rival, UCLA.

The ACC and ESPN announced the starting times and TV coverage for the first five games of Cal’s 2026 football season. 

Two of those games will be night games played at Cal – against UCLA on September 5 and against Clemson on September 25 – and both will be televised by ESPN. And they may be the two most important games on the Golden Bears’ schedule.

The September 5 opener against UCLA is set to start at 7:30 p.m. Pacific time.  It will match two teams with new head coaches – Lupoi at Cal and Bob Chesney at UCLA.

The game is a virtual tossup, with Cal being a 1.5-point favorite at the moment according to FanDuel and DraftKings.

It will be the 2026 debut for Cal sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, and he will be matched against UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

The last time Cal played UCLA was the final regular-season game of the 2023 season, a game Cal won 33-7 on the Bruins' home field. Cal and UCLA will play each other in each of the next four seasons, from 2026 through 2029.

The Golden Bears’ ACC opener at Syracuse on September 12 is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time (3:30 p.m. Eastern time). That game will be televised by the ACC Network.

The Bears’ second nonconference game, against Wagner in Berkeley on September 19, will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network.

The game time for the Friday, September 25 home game against Clemson had been announced previously, and it will start at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Cal’s third and final nonconference game is scheduled for October 3 at UNLV, and it will start at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised by CBS Sports Network.

Starting times for Cal’s remaining seven games will be announced at a later date:

2026 Cal Football Schedule (Time, TV)

Sept. 5 - UCLA at Cal (7:30 p.m., ESPN)

Sept. 12 – Cal at Syracuse (12:30 p.m., ACCN)

Sept. 19 - Wagner at Cal (12:30 p.m., ACCN)

Friday, Sept. 25 - Clemson at Cal (7:30 p.m., ESPN)

Oct. 3 – Cal at UNLV (12:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Oct. 10 - Virginia Tech at Cal

Oct. 17 - Wake Forest at Cal

Oct. 24 – Cal at SMU

Oct. 31 – Cal at NC State

Nov. 14 – Cal at Virginia

Nov. 21 – Stanford at Cal

Nov. 28 – Pittsburgh at Cal

Dec. 5 - ACC Championship (9 a.m., ESPN)

---Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. 

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