The college football calendar is about to change, and one of the sport’s marquee nonconference games is moving with it. Texas will host Michigan on Sept. 4, 2027, one week earlier than originally scheduled, as part of a broader NCAA schedule reform that eliminates the long-standing “Week 0.”
Texas Athletics announced the revised dates Thursday, affecting four home games over the next two seasons. The Longhorns will open the 2027 season against New Mexico State on Aug. 28 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, then welcome the Wolverines on Sept. 4, and wrap up nonleague play against UTEP on Sept. 11. In 2028, the season opener versus Louisiana Tech moves up to Aug. 26.
The shuffle stems from an NCAA FBS Oversight Committee approval that starts the entire Football Bowl Subdivision a week earlier beginning in 2027. Teams will still play 12 games, but now across a 14-week span that affords two open dates. Previously, only a handful of teams opened in Week 0; now every program will kick off before Labor Day weekend.
Michigan, for its part, has adjusted accordingly. The Wolverines open at home against Buffalo on Aug. 28, then travel to Austin for the Texas clash on Sept. 4, and finish their nonconference slate against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 11. Earlier this week there was brief confusion when a report suggested the Eastern Michigan game might conflict with the Texas trip, but a Michigan spokesman confirmed it was simply a required scheduling ripple from the earlier start.
The game itself carries added weight. It completes a home-and-home series that began with a emphatic 31-12 Longhorns victory in Ann Arbor on Sept. 7, 2024. The two programs met again in the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31, 2025, when Texas won 41-27. Remarkably, this will be the first time Michigan visits Austin, and Texas owns a 3-0 all-time record against the Wolverines, including a 38-37 Rose Bowl classic in 2004.
Both teams will have two open weeks in 2027, though those dates have yet to be finalized as the rest of the schedule comes together. For now, the showdown in the Lone Star State is locked in for the Saturday after Labor Day—or, more precisely, the first Saturday of the new college football season.
