SEMO adds West Florida, finalizes 12-game 2026 football schedule
SEMO’s 12-game slate pairs an FBS trip to Iowa State with five home dates, and three of its last five league games are on the road.
Southeast Missouri did not just fill a calendar on April 28. It built a schedule that could shape the Redhawks’ postseason case before the OVC-Big South race even settles in. The finished 12-game slate gives Tom Matukewicz’s team five home dates, an FBS road game at Iowa State, and a nonconference opener at Indiana State that carries more weight than the average August trip.
That opener lands Aug. 29 in Terre Haute, where Southeast Missouri will play Indiana State for the first time since the 2015 season. It is only the 10th all-time meeting between the programs, and Indiana State holds a 5-4 edge. A week later, the Redhawks go to Ames to face Iowa State on Sept. 5 in just the second meeting in program history, the kind of money-game trip that can help a strength-of-schedule profile if SEMO is good enough to stay competitive.
The first month does not soften after that. Southeast Missouri visits Southern Illinois on Sept. 12, hosts Central Arkansas on Sept. 19 and then adds West Florida at home on Sept. 26. That final nonconference piece matters. West Florida announced April 2 that it will move to Division I, join the Atlantic Sun Conference as a full member and enter the United Athletic Conference as a football member beginning July 1. For SEMO, it is a chance to line up against a program stepping into the FCS pipeline while keeping a regional footprint intact.
The league run starts Oct. 10 against Lindenwood and continues with Western Illinois for Homecoming on Oct. 17, Eastern Illinois on Oct. 24, Gardner-Webb on Oct. 31, Tennessee State on Nov. 7, Charleston Southern on Nov. 14 and UT Martin on Nov. 21. Three of Southeast Missouri’s last five conference games will be on the road, a grind that could decide whether the Redhawks are playing for a title or just trying to protect their résumé late.
That résumé needs work after a 4-8 finish in 2025, including a 3-5 league record. Matukewicz enters his 13th season with three league titles, four FCS Playoff trips and the program’s only playoff win, a 28-14 victory over Stony Brook in 2018. The schedule now gives him a clear test: can SEMO turn a rugged, road-heavy slate and five home dates into something that looks playoff-worthy, or will the back half drag the Redhawks back toward the middle of the pack?
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