UC Santa Barbara (RV)
Cal Poly Hosts UC Santa Barbara Friday in Blue-Green Rivalry Opener
9/24/2026 3:45:00 PM | Men's Soccer
SAN LUIS OBISPO – With the nation’s largest collegiate men’s soccer crowd of the season expected Friday evening at Mustang Memorial Field, Cal Poly renews the Blue-Green rivalry with UC Santa Barbara.
Kickoff on ESPN+ is 7 p.m. for Cal Poly (3-2-3), which resumes action after a nine-day break. Falling just once in its initial seven matches, Cal Poly’s 2026 start was its best to a season in 12 years. The Mustangs, however, dropped a 3-2 home decision to Cal State Bakersfield in their last matchup on Sept. 16 – a result that marked the first time in 43 matches that Cal Poly had conceded three goals.
UC Santa Barbara (4-2-2), meanwhile, was ranked No. 25 in the Sept. 15 edition of the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll before the Gauchos fell 3-1 at home to Oregon State (Sept. 20).
For the first time in the 19-year history of the rivalry series, neither of the 2026 series matchups (including an Oct. 10 date at UCSB’s Harder Stadium) will be contested for conference points following Cal Poly’s offseason Pac-12 transition and UC Santa Barbara’s Big West retention.
Cal Poly saw a three-match unbeaten run versus the Gauchos snapped last October with a 1-0 home setback. The Mustangs captured the 2024 home rivalry game, 2-0, behind goals from then-captain Nate Colley and current junior midfielder Diego Guerra.
Cal Poly’s most frequent opponent at the Division I level, UC Santa Barbara leads both the Blue-Green rivalry series (codified in 2007), 17-12-9, and the Division I series, 32-16-12.
A tightly contested series, 26 of the last 35 matches between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have been decided by one goal or drawn. Seven of Cal Poly’s nine victories in the 38-game history of the rivalry series against UC Santa Barbara have been a one-goal triumph. Just four times since 2007 has one side scored as many as three goals against the other (Cal Poly’s 4-1 home victory versus the Gauchos to close 2017 marked the first time since Nov. 9, 2001 that one team had put four goals past the other). The Mustangs are undefeated at home against the Gauchos in 10 of the last 16 years while UC Santa Barbara has lost exactly once (2012) at home to Cal Poly in the last 27 matchups at Harder Stadium.
The best-attended sporting events annually in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, the Cal Poly-UC Santa Barbara series has drawn 36 of the top 78 regular season crowd figures in NCAA history (46 percent) with all matches occurring during the previous 19 years. The matchup at Mustang Memorial Field has sold out all 11,075 seats in 11 of the last 17 seasons.
Since the start of the 2007 season, 361,911 total spectators and an average of 9,524 fans per match have witnessed Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara clash on 38 occasions.
