2026 Fordham University Men’s Water Polo Schedule
BRONX, N.Y. — Coming off its second consecutive national semifinalist appearance, the five-time defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) champion Fordham University Rams released the program’s 2026 schedule for the upcoming water polo season. The schedule has the most challenging run to date for the Rams, featuring 10 contests against opponents that ranked in the Top 15 in the final 2025 poll, including four that have won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship in the past.
Right out of the gate, Fordham will take part in the Bruno Classic hosted by Brown University on Saturday-Sunday, August 29-30, as the Rams face University of the Pacific and Gannon University on day one in Providence, Rhode Island. On August 30, the defending MAWPC Champions meet the University of California-Davis and Iona University. Pacific ranked No. 11 in the final poll of 2025, while UC-Davis was seventh.
The Rams then open their home slate of games on September 11 and 13 against another pair of 2025 nationally ranked teams when Fordham welcomes Pepperdine University and San Jose State University to the Messmore Aquatic Center. Pepperdine finished tied for ninth in 2025, while the San Jose State showdown is a rematch of last year’s National Collegiate Championship quarterfinal that Fordham won, 13-9, over the previously No. 6-ranked Spartns.
Fordham begins MAWPC league play with three road contests on September 19 as part of the Bison Invitational at Bucknell University, where the Rams will meet the host Bision, Mount St. Mary’s University and Mercyhurst University.
The Rams remain on the road the following week for the first of two West Coast trips. Fordham clashes with two-time defending national champion the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) on September 25 prior to contests at Long Beach State University on September 27 and California Baptist University on September 28. UCLA (No. 1), Long Beach State (No. 8) and Cal Baptist (No. 9) all ranked among the Top 10 teams at the conclusion of the 2025 season.
The team then rumbles in the Bronx with an eight-match homestand starting on October 9 with six of those matches against MAWPC opponents as the team hosts Wagner College (October 9), the United States Naval Academy (October 10), George Washington University (October 11), which was ranked No. 20 in the final 2025 poll, Bucknell (October 17), Mount St. Mary’s (October 17) and Mercyhurst (October 17) In addition, Fordham takes on defending Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion/2025 No. 12-ranked Princeton University (October 10) along with Empire State nemesis Iona (October 15) in a pair of non-conference games.
Following a four-match road swing with games versus Wagner (October 24), Navy (October 25), George Washington (October 25) and Princeton (October 30), Fordham concludes the regular season back on the West Coast to take on the University of California (November 6) and Stanford University (November 8). A pair of perennial water polo powers, the Golden Bears and Cardinal wrapped up last season at No. 4 and 3 in the final official National Top 25 rankings.
The Rams will aim to add the program’s sixth consecutive MAWPC Championship plaque following titles in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 as Fordham joins George Washington, Mercyhurst, Mount St. Mary’s, Navy and Wagner in battling for the 2026 MAWPC title at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg, Pa., on November 20-22.
The MAWPC Champion earns an automatic berth into the 2026 NCAA Championship field at the University of California-San Diego on December 4-6 in La Jolla, Calif.
Fordham and Princeton are currently tied for the most consecutive men’s water polo league championship titles in the history of the sport on the East Coast as the Rams and Tigers claimed the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 MAWPC and NWPC Championships, respectively. to surpass the marks of Bucknell (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980) and the University of Massachusetts (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) which achieved the feat prior to the split of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) into two conferences.
