The 2026 NAIA Football season kicks off Thursday night with 17 games across 13 states, a top-10 showdown Friday night on Urban Edge Network, and 30 more games across the PrestoSports NAIA Scoreboard Saturday. Of the 48 games on the Week 0 schedule, 12 are featured across the NAIA Family of Networks, including four – two Thursday, two Saturday – on the NAIA Network.
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Grand View puts its 28-game winning streak on the line at the Oak Bowl, one of the NAIA’s most historic venues, when the defending champs open at Peru State (Neb.). Championship Game MVP Dalten Van Pelt returns to lead the GVU offense, while Grand View’s defense ranked second in the NAIA against opponents’ scoring at 12.7 points per game, allowing just 82 rushing yards per contest. GVU will be looking to replace NAIA Player of the Year Jackson Waring, while Peru State brings back a veteran under center, CJ Dixon, who threw for 2,580 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2025.
One of the NAIA’s top returners will get his chance early, as Levi Torgerson looks for another big year starting Thursday night against OUAZ. As a pass catcher, Torgerson led the NAIA with 103 receptions, 1,370 receiving yards and his NAIA-best 444 punt-return yards led to another NAIA-best, 2,446 all-purpose yards.
Northwestern (Iowa) kicker Gianna Bennett needs 49 points to become the all-time leading female scorer in college football history, entering 2026 with 52 career points. She’ll chase Tonya Butler’s 87 points at West Alabama, and the leader, Brittany Ryan, who scored 100 points in her Lebanon Valley College career.
Dordt (Iowa) and Indiana Wesleyan get the spotlight all to themselves Friday night as the only NAIA game on the docket, at 6 p.m. ET on the Urban Edge Network. Both teams return last season’s starting quarterbacks – Noah Strickfaden (110-196, 1,754 yards, 13 TDs) for Dordt, and Arjun Lothe (244-395, 3,938 yards, 41 TDs) for IWU. Lothe led the NAIA last season in total passing yards.
No. 3 Benedictine (Kan.) and No. 7 Morningside (Iowa) meet in an August opener for the fourth straight season, with the Ravens looking for their third consecutive win in the series. Benedictine won 38-34 last year and 48-45 in 2024, while Morningside took the 2023 matchup, 20-17. Before becoming an August tradition, the teams last met in the 2018 NAIA National Championship Game, a 35-28 Morningside victory.
Central Oklahoma at (RV) Texas Wesleyan, 6 p.m. CT
#16 St. Thomas (Fla.) at (RV) Cumberland (Tenn.), 6 p.m. CT
Graceland (Iowa) at #13 William Penn (Iowa), 7 p.m. CT
#8 Dordt (Iowa) at #9 Indiana Wesleyan, 6 p.m. ET
#21 McPherson (Kan.) at Avila (Mo.), 1 p.m. CT
#3 Benedictine (Kan.) at #7 Morningside (Iowa), 6 p.m. CT
Non-conference schedules heat up this weekend! In this week’s NAIA women’s volleyball notebook, we feature the first round of players of the week and give you one more look at the Coaches’ Top 25 before the first regular-season poll is announced next week. Take a peek at the upsets from last weekend, plan what Top […]
Volume II | Issue I The 2026 season is underway as 197 women’s soccer teams across 19 NAIA conferences begin to battle it out to be one of the 40 teams to hear their name called on selection day. Players of the Week Women’s soccer offensive and defensive players of the week will be announced […]
The Preseason Top Five Check-in Grand View (Iowa) The Vikings sit at 0-1-1 following their first two matches of the season. They fell to RV Rocky Mountain (Mont.) in a 1-0 decision, before battling to a 0-0 draw against Morningside (Iowa). They return to the pitch on Sept. 5 against Cumberland (Tenn.) in the Fong’s […]
NAIA Family of Networks to Air 12 Games, With Links at NAIA.org/Watch The 2026 NAIA Football season kicks off with 48 games across three days in Week 0, 2026, beginning Thursday, August 27, at 6 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. The NAIA Family of Broadcast Networks will feature 12 of the 48 games, with […]