REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands football team will begin their 2026 season on the road in Oregon for a match-up with George Fox University (GFU) on September 5.
The Bruins are game one of nine with a 10th coming at the end of the regular season on Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship Weekend with standings determining opponent and location.
Overall, the Bulldogs are scheduled to be inside Ted Runner Stadium four times with another five on the road. They will play two non-conference games, one home and one on the road, and seven SCIAC games, three at home and four on the road.
GFU finished 2025 4-6 overall and 0-2 against SCIAC opponents. The Bruins and Bulldogs will meet in the season opener for the third-straight season. The all-time series gives the Bulldogs the edge 5-4, after Redlands broke through with a 10-7 win at home last September, coming after what had been a stretch for the Bruins taking the last two meetings dating back to 2022.
After traveling north, Redlands returns home and gets a bye week before hosting Whitworth University on September 19. The Pirates were the Northwest Conference (NWC) champion in 2025 at 7-0 and advanced to the NCAA Championships where they lost in the first round to Chapman University. They went 8-3 overall and 0-2 against SCIAC programs. Redlands has had the upper hand historically, and pulled off a 34-17 road upset over a receiving-votes Whitworth squad in their last meeting this past September, pushing the Bulldogs' series edge to 6-3 through their 2011 meeting, while extending their winning streak over the Pirates to six.
With non-conference complete, the Bulldogs travel to Thousand Oaks for the Smudge Pot Trophy game at California Lutheran University (CLU) on September 26. The Kingsmen currently hold the trophy for the first time since the 2012 season. CLU finished in a tie for first with the Bulldogs in the Sun Division at 6-4, 4-4 SCIAC. They ended their season with a championship game loss at Chapman. The Smudge Pot itself has been one of the most lopsided rivalries in the SCIAC — Redlands won the trophy 11-straight years from 2013 to 2024 before Cal Lutheran finally wrestled it back last fall with a 27-10 win at Ted Runner Stadium, so the Bulldogs will be looking to reclaim the citrus-industry trophy on the road this time. Overall in the series Redlands is 16-8, averaging 28.0 PPG during the match-ups.
Redlands will stay on the road for a game with new SCIAC member Azusa Pacific University (APU) on October 3. The Cougars will count as a SCIAC game but will not be able to qualify for the championship. This is also their first season of competition since 2019 when they played at the NCAA Division II level going 1-9. The two programs have never met on the football field, so this will be the first chapter of what could become a new SCIAC rivalry.
In the first of two consecutive home games, the Bulldogs host reigning SCIAC champion Chapman on October 10. The Panthers went 9-3 overall and 8-0 in SCIAC. They beat Whitworth in the NCAA Championship First Round before losing to eventual national champion University of Wisconsin–River Falls in the second round on the road. Redlands has owned this series, holding a 15-8 all-time edge since the rivalry began in 2002, but over the last two match-ups Chapman has taken both including a 27-0 shutout of the Bulldogs in Orange last October. Redlands will be looking to snap that skid and pick up its first win over the Panthers since 2023 when they rolled 38-21.
The University of La Verne (ULV) visits Ted Runner Stadium on October 17. The Leopards finished last in the Surf Division at 1-7 and were 1-8 overall. This has been one of the most dominant series in program history for Redlands, which holds a commanding 24-1 all-time record against La Verne winning 11-straight meetings, a streak that includes a 29-14 road win last November. Throughout this series Redlands has averaged 38.0 PPG, which includes a perfect 13-0 mark on the road.
Redlands' second-to-last road game comes on October 24 at Whittier College. Like APU, the Poets are restarting their program after a hiatus. The Poets last competed in 2022, going 0-9. With Whittier cutting the program during the pandemic, this will effectively be a fresh start to a series that has largely gone the Bulldogs' way historically. Redlands is currently 18-1 against the Poets dating back to 2002 and currently riding a 15-game winning streak. During this span the U of R has averaged 48.0 PPG against the Purple & Gold.
The Bulldog Homecoming game is October 31 against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). After a few very successful seasons, the Stags finished a game back of the Kingsmen and Bulldogs in the Sun Division with a 3-5 record last fall. They went 5-5 overall. Redlands holds a 17-10 edge in the all-time series dating back to 2002, with both teams splitting the series this past fall.
Wrapping up the regular season on November 7 Redlands will travel to Claremont to face Pomona-Pitzer (P-P). The Sagehens were 5-5, 4-4 SCIAC this past fall. The Bulldogs carry a 20-7 advantage in this series, splitting with the Sagehens in 2025. Over the last six meetings Redlands is 1-5 going back to 2023.
On November 14 the Bulldogs will play on SCIAC Championship Weekend. The match-ups will be determined by the standings in the Sun and Surf divisions with the first-place teams playing each other for SCIAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship. The second-place teams will play for third place and the third-place teams playing for fifth.
