Purdue’s 2026 schedule may not carry the same name-brand punch as some recent years, but it still comes with plenty of weight. Five opponents landed in Tuesday’s USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll, and one more drew votes, giving Barry Odom’s team a solid run of ranked matchups even without the usual heavy hitters like Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan or USC.
The toughest test on paper comes early. Notre Dame is the highest-ranked opponent on Purdue’s slate and will be the first top-25 team the Boilermakers see in 2026.
The Fighting Irish visit West Lafayette at the end of September, which will be Purdue’s fourth game of the season and the capper to a non-conference stretch that also includes Wake Forest. Notre Dame has taken the last 10 meetings in the series, including a 56-30 win in South Bend last fall.
The season closes with another major challenge, and this one has the feel of a familiar grind. Purdue heads to Bloomington for the Old Oaken Bucket Game, and Indiana has controlled the matchup since Curt Cignetti arrived. The Hoosiers have won the last two meetings by a combined 122-3, making the regular-season finale one of the biggest hurdles on the Boilermakers’ calendar.
Penn State also made the preseason top 25, though that inclusion raises some questions after a 7-6 finish last season. Matt Campbell is a proven coach, but this is his first year in Happy Valley, which makes the ranking feel a little premature. The Nittany Lions could absolutely develop into a strong team, but among Purdue’s ranked opponents, they look like the one with the most uncertainty at this stage.
Washington brings another notable roadblock, and it also brings a familiar face back to West Lafayette. Ryan Walters returns in October as the Huskies’ defensive coordinator after Washington surged to a 9-4 record under Jedd Fisch last season.
Purdue will have to deal with the cross-country trip and a Friday-night setting, but the bigger issue may be Demond Williams Jr. The quarterback is one of the top players at his position in the country and a major reason Washington opened the year inside the top 20.
Iowa is another team that could make life difficult if things come together offensively. Some around the sport view the Hawkeyes as a possible College Football Playoff contender, though that may be a step too far.
Still, they have a habit of stacking eight-win seasons, and if the quarterback situation settles down, they’ll be a hard out. Purdue has had some success at Kinnick Stadium, going 2-2 in the last four meetings there, but November in Iowa City is never an easy assignment.
Illinois rounds out the group, and that ranking feels about right. The Fighting Illini lost a lot of key pieces, so there’s plenty to sort out, but Bret Bielema has earned real respect by guiding the program to a 19-7 mark over the last two seasons.
In Other News...
Purdue AD Search May Be Near Its Defining Move
Purdues long-running search for its next athletic director appears to be nearing a pivotal point, with the school looking to get a new leader in place before the upcoming football season. Mike Bobinski plans to retire at the end of 2026, but the Boilermakers have been working ahead of that timeline to ensure a smooth transition, and the profile they appear to be weighing is one with deep experience in college athletics administration.
Tommy McClelland has spent his career in that lane, with stops at Vanderbilt, McNeese State and Louisiana Tech before his current role at Rice. For Purdue, the appeal is obvious: experience, institutional knowledge and a track record that suggests he could step into a demanding job without much ramp-up time. The only real question now is how quickly the school will finish the process and make the move official. [Read more 🡒]
Robbie Hummel's Injury Still Haunts Purdue's Biggest Tournament What If
Robbie Hummels torn ACL in the 2009-10 season remains one of those Purdue injuries that still hangs over the program when the conversation turns to what if. He went down in a year when the Boilermakers won the Big Ten regular-season title, earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and pushed into the Sweet 16 before falling to Duke, but the sense around that team has always been that the ceiling might have been even higher with Hummel healthy.
Hummel and others have long wondered whether the injury changed Purdues tournament path before the bracket even opened, from seeding to how far that group could realistically go. More than a decade later, it is still the kind of loss that refuses to fade, because Purdue had the rsum of a contender and just enough momentum to make the absence feel even bigger. [Read more 🡒]