The Arizona State Sun Devils are 4-1 and are on a three-week winning streak. ASU, after their 20-24 loss against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, quickly bounced back to the winning track. This is undeniably a solid start to their program, which keeps them alive in the title contention. They have a busy schedule this fall and are committed to giving their best to reach the playoffs.

As they head into the bye week,  Arizona State’s head coach, Kenny Dillingham, signed a deal with an HBCU to pay them six figures for a non-conference game next year. What’s more interesting is that Dillingham accepted the deal against a football legend’s wish, who made a controversial statement weeks ago.

According to the FBSchedules, Kenny Dillingham’s Arizona State Sun Devils have signed a contract with Morgan State Bears to add them to their 2026 football schedule. The Bears are a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). According to the deal, ASU will host Morgan State at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, on September 5, 2026. The contract guarantees that Arizona State will pay the Bears $600,000 for the game. This will mark the first meet-up of the Arizona State-Morgan State schools.

This deal got confirmed weeks after Billy Joe’s advice to HBCUs to give up on playing bigger teams. He stated that he doesn’t encourage their program to play a Division I Single-A team, as they could easily injure smaller teams, which are not even ready for the big ones. “We don’t have the kind of program to play a Division I single-A team,” Billy Joe said on HBCU Gameday.

He said that they are doing it now for guarantees and for extra money, but he finds it “demoralizing when someone puts 50, 60, 70, 80 points” and causes injuries physically and psychologically. He instead asked to look at Ivy Leagues, and advised them to play non-contact sports with big teams. 

Arizona State & Morgan State’s 2026 schedule

Arizona State’s non-conference football schedule for the 2026 season is tentatively filled after the addition of Morgan State. Other than Morgan State, the Sun Devils are also scheduled to meet the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, on September 12.

The following week, on September 19, they will be hosting the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Tempe, Arizona. Taking a look at Arizona’s Big 12 play next season, they are scheduled to host Colorado, Baylor, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State. In the away games, they will be travelling to Arizona, BYU, Kansas, Texas Tech, and UCF.

When it comes to Morgan State’s 2026 season, Arizona State is its second scheduled non-conference opponent. The Bears will be visiting the Towson Tigers on September 19 at Johnny Unitas Stadium, which is two weeks after visiting Arizona State.