When is the 2026 Penn State football Homecoming game, and who will the Lions play?

Penn State will hold its annual Homecoming game on Sept. 26 when Wisconsin visits Beaver Stadium, according to the school’s website for the weeklong event. A kick time for the contest is not yet out. Neither are the rest of the football program’s 2026 game themes.

By date, it will be the earliest Homecoming game since 2007, according to Penn State professor Steve Sampsell’s historical schedule tracker on StuffSomersSays.com. It will not be the first one since then, though, in September. The Lions hosted Northwestern on Sept. 27, 2014. It also took on Illinois on Sept. 28, 2024.

Penn State snapped a three-year Homecoming game winning streak in 2025 when it lost to Northwestern 22-21 at Beaver Stadium. That was James Franklin’s last game with the Lions, of course. Conversely, new coach Matt Campbell’s first Big Ten game in State College will fall on Homecoming. His first experience with fans in the stands at Beaver Stadium came during April’s Blue-White practice. But, during the first five months of his tenure, he’s made note of the school’s fan base and alumni.

“I want to say thank you to our fans, alumni, student-body,” Campbell said on Dec. 8, 2025 when he was hired. “Your loyalty to Penn State football resonates all over the country. I know it’s the greatest fan base. I know game days here in Beaver Stadium with 107,000 plus is one of the greatest environments in the world of football.

“It’s my mission to make you proud of this football team, how we play, how we do things. Truly appreciate your loyalty and faithfulness to Penn State football, and can’t wait to make you proud of what we’re about.”

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He added after the Blue-White practice:

“In a downpour today, to see this crowd and the amount of people that came out to support our football program, I just think every opportunity to show our young men in our program how special it is to play here at Penn State and what it means.

“I don’t know if it’s anything that I learned because I think it’s one of the things that I’ve been absolutely grateful for from the day that I’ve touched down here, is understanding it’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than our players. What we get to represent and what we are training to be able to represent every fall Saturday is really powerful.”

Penn State is 75-25-5 all-time on Homecoming. It is 12-9 all-time against the Badgers, and amid a six-game winning streak dating back to 2012. The most recent triumph came via a 28-13 2024 result in Madison. The Lions last beat the Badgers in State College in 2018. Fourth-year head coach Luke Fickell’s team enters the 2026 season off a 4-8 mark last fall.