The kickoff time is set for the toughest road trip on the Gophers' 2026 schedule. Minnesota plays at Indiana on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2:30 p.m., according to the program's 2026 football schedule.
The game will air on CBS. The program announced it as an afternoon Halloween kickoff in Bloomington, and it lands in CBS's 3:30 p.m. Eastern Big Ten window.
Indiana is the kind of opponent that gets that slot now. Under Cignetti the Hoosiers went 16-0 last season and won the program's first national championship. When the kickoff time was announced, Indiana was 6-1 and ranked No. 6. Its only loss was 19-15 to No. 3 Ohio State, which was Indiana's first home loss under Cignetti and ended a 19-game home winning streak.
Minnesota was 4-2 at that point and coming off its Oct. 17 bye. The Gophers don't go straight to Bloomington, though. Iowa comes to Huntington Bank Stadium on Oct. 24 with Floyd of Rosedale on the line, so Minnesota plays a trophy game against its border rival and then travels to face the defending champs a week later.
This is P.J. Fleck's 10th season. He came in 66-44 overall and 39-40 across 9 Big Ten seasons. The 2025 team went 8-5 and finished with a 20-17 win over New Mexico in the Rate Bowl, which put Fleck at 7-0 in bowl games. The schedule doesn't ease up after Indiana. Two of the 4 trophy games are still to come, both on the road: the Liberty Bell Trophy at Penn State on Nov. 14 and Paul Bunyan's Axe at Wisconsin on Nov. 28.
Halloween at Indiana is a big test for the Gophers. A win over the defending champs on the road and on national TV would be the best result of the Fleck era in a long time. Before that, Minnesota has to get through Iowa on Saturday.
