Brevard, Greensboro football schedules include first Guilford matchup, Soup Bowl game

Guilford County will bookend Brevard’s 2026 football slate and Greensboro’s season opener, with two September dates that should pull alumni, families and game-day spending toward local campuses. Brevard will visit Guilford for the first time in football on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, at 6 p.m., and Greensboro will open its season against Guilford in the annual Soup Bowl on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.

Brevard’s schedule gives the Tornados five home games and five road games, with seven USA South opponents and three nonconference contests. Head coach Bill Khayat said the program enters its 10th year in the USA South Conference with Guilford standing as the lone exception among familiar in-state rivals. The Tornados finished 2025 with six wins, went 3-0 against in-state opponents to win the inaugural Spirit of the Old North trophy, and say they own a combined 19-4 record against Greensboro, Methodist and NC Wesleyan.

That in-state stretch gives the final month real weight in North Carolina. After the Sept. 26 trip to Greensboro, Brevard closes its regular season with three straight home and road games against familiar conference opposition: Greensboro on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m.; Methodist on Saturday, Nov. 7, at noon; and NC Wesleyan in Rocky Mount on Saturday, Nov. 14, at noon. Those are the kinds of dates that tend to pack tailgates, fill local restaurants and keep parking lots busy around game day.

Greensboro’s opener comes with a rivalry edge. The Pride will try to defend their 2025 Soup Bowl win, a 21-7 road victory over Guilford in the 24th Annual Gate City Soup Bowl. Guilford’s football notes tied the game to a food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank and the Quaker Cupboard, giving the matchup a role well beyond the scoreboard. The annual September meeting remains one of the clearest early-season markers for Greensboro and Guilford, with campus traffic, alumni turnout and local donations all rising around the same night.

Methodist adds another layer to the local picture. The university competes in NCAA Division III and the USA South Athletic Conference, and it says nearly half of its students are student-athletes across 20 sports. That athletic footprint helps explain why late-season USA South games in North Carolina, especially the ones involving Greensboro, Brevard and Methodist, carry weight far beyond the conference standings.