Howard and Indiana will meet for the first time in program history on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, when the Hoosiers host the Bison at noon at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.
That makes Howard Vs Indiana more than a date on the schedule. Indiana is 1-0 entering the game, Howard is 1-1, and the matchup lands as the second of four straight home games for Indiana to open its 2026 season and the second of eight home dates overall.
Indiana’s start has already shown why Curt Cignetti’s team draws attention. The Hoosiers beat North Texas in Week 1, and Cignetti now owns a 28-2 record in his three years in charge, including a 17-1 mark against Big Ten competition. His 27 wins through his first two seasons remain the most by an FBS head coach at one school in that span.
Howard arrives with a split first two games that shows both sides of the challenge. Ted White opened his tenure with a 31-24 win over Alabama A&M in Atlanta in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, then watched his team fall 28-21 at home to Richmond on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. The Bison are not walking in unbeaten, but they are not walking in buried either.
Indiana’s Week 1 win also offered a reminder that this roster is still settling into new roles. Tino Sunseri is back as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator after Chandler Whitmer left Bloomington for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the opener against North Texas included a long list of first impressions. Lee Beebe Jr. returned the opening kickoff 67 yards after missing the final 13 games of 2025 with injury, then added 33 rushing yards. Isaiah Jones made 12 tackles, Nico Radicic hit seven extra points to reach 165 for his career and set the school record, and Carter Smith made his 42nd straight start at left tackle.
The next layer is what Howard will be asked to solve first. Indiana has already shown a big-play ceiling: Josh Hoover threw four touchdown passes in his Hoosier debut, Turbo Richard ran for two scores, Charlie Becker caught two touchdown passes, Nick Marsh scored on his first catch as a Hoosier, and Chiddi Obiazor and Tobi Osunsanmi each flashed in the front seven. Against a first-time opponent, that kind of depth usually decides whether the game stays tight or turns early.
It is also the seventh time since Cignetti’s first season in 2024 that Indiana has lined up against a program it had never faced before, a steady pattern that has become part of the schedule rather than an exception to it. On Saturday, the latest first-time meeting begins with a noon kickoff and no history to lean on — only what both teams have shown in September and what they still have to prove.
