Jackson and company excited to start the season earlier this year

SIOUX FALLS – Five weeks from Saturday, the South Dakota State football team will take on Stetson in the 2026 season opener. It’s the beginning of a unique schedule for the Jackrabbits and head coach Dan Jackson and senior defensive lineman Logan Green had some thoughts about the schedule at Missouri Valley Football Conference media day last week.

The opener against Stetson will be played on what is known in the college football world as week zero. The Jackrabbits had to search around the country to find an opponent that wanted to make the trip to Brookings at the end of August and Jackson said he was happy that the first game of the year ended up being a home game.

“First and foremost it’s a home game, so it’s an opportunity that we can have to sell out the stadium and get our fans out here to watch and support our players. That’s huge,” Jackson said.

Stetson is part of the Pioneer League, which is a non-scholarship conference that also has the likes of Drake and St. Thomas. The Hatters discontinued their football program in 1957 but revived it in 2013. In 2025, Stetson went 3-9 overall and the Hatters have not had a winning season since 2019.

Stetson is certainly not an FCS powerhouse, let alone a middle of the pack team, but there weren’t a lot of options for a 12th opponent for SDSU. Jackson gave a nod to his athletic director for helping fill the schedule and he likes that SDSU’s bye week lands right in the middle of the 12 games.

“Big credit to Justin Sell, our athletic director, and the work that he helped me put in to build a schedule with 12 Division I games, which matters a lot. We always wanted to play on week zero game, so appreciate Stetson for signing up for that and being willing to come up to Brookings and play us, because that was a journey to put the schedule together. We have seven home games and five on the road. I love how it’s home loaded at the front of the season and the bye is right in the middle. The schedule sets up perfectly,” Jackson said.

A majority of the FCS teams will start the season on week zero this year, due to a rule change that allows FCS teams to schedule up to 12 games. It’s called week zero because only eight FBS games are being played that week and it began as an opportunity to play Hawaii or play overseas and then have week one off because of the travel. Recently, more and more FBS teams have been scheduling games this week because it allows them to have an extra bye during the season.

Jackson said he thinks it shouldn’t be called week zero anymore if most of the FCS teams are playing this week.

“I think they should just change [week zero] to week one. We’re going to be mandated to play 12 games now throughout the future, so we’re excited to play. … We’re going to be playing on week zero from here on out,” Jackson said.

For SDSU players, the season will come a week earlier this year and that means that practice begins a week earlier as well. The Jackrabbits will begin fall camp next week and Green said it’s always exciting to get practice going, no matter when it is.

“It is what it is. You can look at it multiple different ways. I’m excited to just play football again. I mean, that’s something that as football players, you get an itch and you get into the mode of getting into the season. We just have to be great and be grateful that we have 12 games on our schedule and 12 opportunities to go out and compete and show what we’re made of,” Green said.

One of the bigger games on SDSU’s 2026 slate is a trip to Evanston, Ill., where the Jacks will take on Northwestern. This will be the 14th time that SDSU has played an FBS team and all but one of the previous 13 games came against teams from the Big 12 or Big Ten. 

SDSU has only beaten a power conference team once and it was against a Kansas team in 2015 who did not not win a game that year. Jackson said he always looks forward to playing the bigger schools and looks forward to the opportunity that awaits his team when they face off against a Big Ten opponent on Sept. 5.

“[Being able to play a power four team] is a lot of fun,” Jackson said. “There hasn’t been a South Dakota State team that has beaten a power four school in awhile. I was part of the team when we beat Kansas and that was a lot of fun. Really, we need to play our best no matter who we’re playing, but I love going on the road. I think that our guys enjoy that bond. 

“Those are memories that are with them for a lifetime, and then you get an opportunity to play a team from what’s sometimes viewed as the best conference in all of college football and show what you can do. I look forward to going out there and think it’s going to be a great opportunity for our program.”

The Jackrabbits will receive a $500,000 pay day for playing at Northwestern. That’s something that is always welcomed by FCS schools.

Northwestern is opening a new stadium this season, but the Jackrabbits will not be the ones to open it up. Northwestern officials announced at the beginning of February that the school would not play a home game at the new Ryan Field until Oct. 2. That means that the Jacks and Wildcats will be playing at Martin Stadium, which is a makeshift stadium that was made at Northwestern’s practice facility while construction has been ongoing for the new stadium.

Jackson admitted that he’s disappointed that the Jacks won’t be playing in the new stadium, but he said that it might benefit them overall.

“I do [wish we were playing in that new stadium], but there’s a part of me that says that we’re used to playing in 20,000 seat stadiums. I think our fans are going to come out in droves for that game. So, you know, I would love to open a new stadium, but I think maybe it’s even out of respect that they didn’t want to open it with us,” Jackson said.

SDSU’s other two non-conference games are home games against New Haven and Eastern Illinois on Sept. 12 and Sept. 26, respectively. The Jacks open MVFC play on Sept. 19 at home against Youngstown State. Their other home conference games include Murray State (Oct. 24), South Dakota (Oct. 31) and Indiana State (Nov. 21). SDSU’s road conference games will be at Illinois State (Oct. 3), at North Dakota (Oct. 17), at Northern Iowa (Nov. 7) and at Southern Illinois (Nov. 14).