The 2026 NFL season won’t open with the usual Thursday-night spotlight. This time, the league is starting things on Wednesday, Sept. 9, with the first regular-season game set for that night because of a scheduling clash tied to the NFL’s first-ever game in Australia.
That opener lands at Lumen Field in Seattle, where the New England Patriots will face the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:20 p.m. ET.
The shift makes this the first NFL Kickoff Game on a Wednesday since 2012. That year, the league moved the opener up a day to avoid going head-to-head with former president Barrack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The Australia game is what pushes everything around this year. The NFL says its first-ever regular-season game in Australia will be played at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday 11 September 2026, with the Los Angeles Rams taking on the San Francisco 49ers.
Because of the time difference, that matchup will air in the U.S. on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 8:35 p.m. ET.
In Australia, kickoff will be at 10:35 a.m. AEST on Friday, Sept.
College football is already underway, too. The 2026 college season began on Saturday, Aug. 29, at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. That’s the same day the Florida State Seminoles opened their season at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, beating New Mexico State 34-17.
Florida’s other big programs are also rolling into Week 1. The Florida Gators will play their first game of the 2026 season this Saturday, Sept. 5, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.
That game against Florida Atlantic will air on the SEC Network, with kickoff set for 7:45 p.m. ET.
For the state’s NFL teams, the first Sunday of the regular season is the launch point. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are both scheduled for 1 p.m. ET starts, along with the rest of Florida’s teams opening that day.
The NFL regular season runs 18 weeks and wraps in January before the playoffs carry into the Super Bowl in February. College football’s regular season is shorter, lasting 14 weeks before championship games arrive in December.
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