UT Martin 2026 schedule features FBS payouts, seven OVC-Big South games

Two FBS paydays and a seven-game league slate define UT Martin’s 2026 season, with the Skyhawks walking a line between revenue, exposure and the margin-for-error grind that decides conference races.

UT Martin’s schedule, announced Jan. 13, opens at home against Central Arkansas on Aug. 27 and brings Chicago State to Martin on Sept. 5 before the calendar turns into a financial and competitive stress test. The Skyhawks visit West Virginia on Sept. 12, a game HERO Sports listed with a $500,000 payout, then head to Memphis on Sept. 19 for a second FBS trip worth $350,000. Those two road dates give UT Martin $850,000 in guaranteed money while also measuring how far Jason Simpson’s team can push itself against deeper, faster rosters.

After the FBS stretch, the season shifts into the kind of sequencing that usually decides whether an FCS schedule helps or hurts a playoff and title push. UT Martin opens OVC-Big South play at Austin Peay on Sept. 26 in a renewed rivalry against a former OVC foe and current UAC member. The Skyhawks and Govs have met 70 times, with UT Martin holding a 41-27-2 edge. From there, the conference slate runs through Tennessee State on Oct. 10, Gardner-Webb on Oct. 17, Western Illinois on Oct. 24, Eastern Illinois on Oct. 31, Charleston Southern on Nov. 7, Lindenwood on Nov. 14 and Southeast Missouri on Nov. 21.

That late run matters because UT Martin finished 2025 at 6-6 overall and 6-2 in the OVC-Big South, good enough to show the Skyhawks belong in the upper tier but not enough to leave much room for a scheduling stumble. The structure of the 2026 slate gives Simpson’s program three non-conference FCS games, two lucrative FBS trips and then a dense conference finish that should reveal whether the roster can survive the physical toll and still stay in the title hunt.

Simpson enters his 21st season with UT Martin having built one of the league’s steadiest programs. The school says he has a 130-98 overall record and a 99-52 mark in conference play, a résumé that matches the schedule’s message: UT Martin is chasing cash early, then trying to cash in on wins when the OVC-Big South race starts to tighten.