North Carolina Central and Texas Southern Meet for the First Time to Open 2026

North Carolina Central and Texas Southern have never played each other, and that changes Saturday when the Eagles travel to Houston to open the 2026 season for both programs. Kickoff at W.W. Thorne Stadium is set for 6 p.m. Central (7 p.m. Eastern), streaming on HBCUGo.

North Carolina Central arrives with a track record that speaks for itself. Head coach Trei Oliver, an NCCU alumnus now in his eighth season, is 45-25 at his alma mater and led the Eagles to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title and the program’s most recent HBCU national championship in 2022. The Eagles went 8-4 overall and 3-2 in the MEAC in 2025, their fourth straight season with at least eight wins, a run that closed with a 33-14 win over Morgan State in which the defense held the Bears to just seven second-half points. Preseason voters expect more of the same: NCCU was picked to finish second in the MEAC’s 2026 poll, behind defending champion South Carolina State.

This is familiar territory for the Eagles in more ways than one. NCCU has opened each of the last three seasons against a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) opponent and is 6-3 against the league since rejoining the MEAC in 2010, including a 6-1 mark under Oliver. And the defense that has carried them there is genuinely elite: NCCU finished 2025 with 45 sacks, second most nationally in the FCS, and averaged an FCS-best 3.75 sacks per game.

The Eagles bring back plenty of firepower to go with that defense. Wide receiver Chance Peterson, the reigning MEAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, returns after catching 48 passes for 720 yards and a touchdown, one of five Eagles on the preseason All-MEAC first team along with quarterback Josh Jones, linebacker Isaiah Lawson, offensive lineman AC McMoore and return specialist Mehki Wall, who returned 17 kicks for 446 yards a year ago. McMoore anchors a line that helped NCCU average a MEAC-best 372.3 yards of total offense per game, and cornerback Jakarri Martin II, a preseason All-MEAC second-team pick who tallied 14 tackles and a forced fumble in 2025, made this year’s Aeneas Williams Award watch list. Oliver also retooled his staff, adding offensive coordinator Chris Barnette from Alabama State, defensive coordinator Tommy Thigpen, a former North Carolina linebacker with NFL and NFL Europe experience, and offensive line coach Grayson Reed, who inherits a group that led the MEAC in scoring at 33.8 points a game last season.

Texas Southern, for its part, is finally trending in the right direction after a long dry spell. The Tigers went 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the SWAC in 2025, the program’s first winning season since 2000, in Cris Dishman’s second year running the program. The two-time NFL Pro Bowl defensive back is now 11-11 at TSU heading into year three. Texas Southern was picked fourth in this year’s SWAC West preseason poll and opens the season with a new defensive coordinator, Scott Vestal.

The Tigers return six offensive starters and three on defense, including three 2026 Preseason All-SWAC second-team picks: tight end Kordell Rodgers, offensive lineman Jayden Daniels and wide receiver Roriyon Richardson, who led the team with four touchdown catches. On defense, cornerback MJ Hinson, a first-team preseason All-SWAC pick, led the conference in interceptions, and defensive end Keelan Cox, a second-team pick, ranked sixth in the SWAC in sacks. Linebacker Umar Yaro and defensive back Javius Williams both ranked among the conference’s top 10 tacklers. Running back Athean Renfro, the SWAC’s leading rusher for much of last season before a late injury, fell just 165 yards short of 1,000 and returns for another shot at the mark.

There’s a fun wrinkle at quarterback, too. Projected starter Cam’Ron McCoy, a transfer from Southern, has actually faced North Carolina Central before: he started at quarterback for the Jaguars in the 2025 MEAC/SWAC Challenge against the Eagles, and now he will get another crack at them in his Texas Southern debut. The game also marks TSU’s first Week 0 contest since 2017, the same year of its last game against a MEAC opponent, Florida A&M.