What are the most interesting games on the SDSU football schedule?

We have officially reached a slow point in the Brookings sports world. All of the high school sports seasons have come to an end as well as the spring seasons for South Dakota State. That leaves us with only baseball and summer soccer.

Not to say that those sports aren't important, but it's a different time than the other 10 months of the year where it seems like it's go-go-go. With this slow time, I figured now was a good time to begin to talk about what people seem to care the most about around here. The South Dakota State football team.

I wanted to go through the Jackrabbits 2026 schedule and highlight what should be the most interesting games. I'll also talk about how different it will be without North Dakota State on the schedule.

I'll start with that. There will be no Dakota Marker rivalry game and it will be the first year that NDSU and SDSU have not played football since 1946.

The rivalry had become one of the top rivalries in not just the FCS, but all of college football. Three of the past four regular season meetings were No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups and the two teams played in the National Championship matchup in 2022. The Bison got the last laugh in the FCS portion of the rivalry, winning this past yearís game 38-7 in Brookings.

NDSU will now be playing in the FBS and the Jackrabbits will have to develop a new top rival. Most point to the other Division I team in the state and I agree with them.

The Interstate Series has become more of a rivalry over the past six years as the two teams have split the past six meetings. Jackrabbit fans will point to USD not winning in Brookings since 2000 but the Coyotes took the Jackrabbits to overtime at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in 2024.

The matchup against USD should be the most hyped game of the 2026 season as the Jacks will welcome the ëYotes to Brookings on Oct. 31. ESPN thought so as well as they will broadcast the game on one of their networks for a third-straight season.

It will be an interesting year for USD as the Coyotes will have a new head coach in Matt Vitzthum after Travis Johansen left to be the defensive coordinator at Rutgers. Vitzhum was the co-offensive coordinator for the Coyotes in 2025 and was the wide receiver's coach in 2024.

USD also has no all-conference players returning from last year's team that went to the FCS Quarterfinals. The Coyotes had 10 players leave via the transfer portal but added 14 players in the portal, including 11 guys from FBS schools.

Itís not a guarantee that the two South Dakota schools will be at the top of the FCS rankings come Oct. 31, but I think the fact that USD has been very competitive with SDSU over the past five-plus years means that this game will have a lot of juice on Halloween.

SDSU will take on an FBS team again this year after not doing so in 2025. This year it's the Northwestern Wildcats on Sept. 5.

The Wildcats have had some success in David Braun's first three years as the former North Dakota State defensive coordinator has a record of 19-19 and heís won two bowl games. There's not a lot of hype around Northwestern in the vaunted Big Ten, but there are a couple of pieces that have Wildcat fans excited about the upcoming season.

The first piece is offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. The decorated coordinator and head coach was the offensive coordinator for Ohio State in 2024 and then moved to the NFL in 2025 as the OC for the Las Vegas Raiders. After he and the rest of the Raiders coaching staff were fired, he decided to head back to the college game again and join Braunís staff.

This was a bit of a surprising move, given Northwestern's football history, but there's no doubt that Kelly is one of the best offensive minds in the history of football. You pair that with transfer quarterback Aidan Chiles and the Wildcat fans are thinking their offense will be able to put up some points.

Chiles comes to Northwestern after two seasons at Michigan State. He came to MSU after a season at Oregon State and was highly touted out of high school as a four-star recruit. Chiles chose Oregon State over Oregon, Washington, Washington State and Kansas State.

This game will be televised on the Big Ten Network, which I know isn't the biggest platform. But anytime you're taking on a Big Ten school on a channel thatís on cable television, it's a big game and an opportunity to make a name for yourself. This is why I think it's interesting game for the Yellow and Blue.

There's three other games in Missouri Valley Football Conference play that I believe could be tough matchups for the Jackrabbits. The first comes on Sept. 19 and it's the conference opener as Youngstown State comes to Brookings.

YSU is projected to be in the top 10-15 in the FCS when the first polls come out and thatís due to the fact that Walter Payton Player of the Year Award runner-up Beau Brungard will be back at quarterback for the Penguins. He was top 10 in the FCS last season in total offense, passing yards, rushing yards, completion percentage and points responsible for. That makes the Penguins a tough out no matter where or when they take on the Jackrabbits.

Two weeks later Illinois State comes to town and the Redbirds are coming off a season where they were the national runner-up. ISU lost quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse and wide receiver Daniel Sobkowicz to graduation but have four all-conference players returning and seven transfers coming in. The Oct. 3 matchup in Normal, Ill., could be a top-five matchup between Jacks and Redbirds.

The other intriguing matchup in the MVFC portion of the schedule is North Dakota. The Jacks will head north to Grand Forks on Oct. 17 and the Fighting Hawks have gained a lot of momentum in their program in the past five seasons. Despite that, SDSU beat UND in overtime in 2025 and has won the past five matchups against the Fighting Hawks.

UND returns quarterback Jerry Kaminski and a lot of their offensive line from a year ago. The Fighting Hawks lost all five games by a combined 17 points last season. If they clean up the late-game execution, UND could be one of the top teams in the FCS in 2026.

SDSU's season begins on Aug. 29 when the Jacks take on Stetson. Until then, you can expect plenty of coverage here at the Brookings Beacon.