Alabama & West Virginia Cancel Future Football Series, Adjust Schedules
TUSCALOOSA, โAL & MORGANTOWN, WV – Alabama and West Virginia have mutually agreed to cancel their planned home-and-home football series for the 2026 and โ2027 seasons,โข both universities announcedโฃ Monday. The decision comes as both programs reassess their future scheduling strategies in light of evolvingโ college athletics and the upcoming nine-game conference format in the Southeastern Conference.
Alabama had โbeen scheduled to โขtravel to West Virginia in 2026 andโค host the Mountaineers in 2027.โข Instead, Alabama will face Florida State in 2026โ and Ohio State in 2027. West Virginia โwill now host Coastal Carolina โin 2026 and southern Miss in 2027.
Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne explained the shift in โคa statement, saying, “We โare โproud of the number of high-quality home-and-home non-conference games โคwe have scheduled for the nextโ 10 years.โ With that โขin mind, we certainly know that college athletics โhas been evolving and changing rapidly over the last few years, and itโฃ made senseโข for us to make these adjustments on our future โฃschedules.”
Byrne continued,”We have a bit more flexibilityโข as we transitionโค to aโ nine-game formatโข in the Southeasternโ Conference,and it gives us the opportunityโ to further evaluate how strength ofโฃ schedule is evaluated for the College Football Playoff. Between other home-and-homes as well as conference games, we will continue to have a solid strength of schedule, which is good forโข our team, fans and college football.”
West Virginia hasโฃ consistently scheduled at least one major-conference opponent in its non-conference lineup since 2018, with this year โfeaturing a โmatchup against Pitt. The university stated its preferred scheduling model is to play one โPower conference team, one group of Six team, โand oneโ Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team annually, believing thisโ approach will be โค”conducive to reaching and advancing in the new CFP format.”
“This โscheduling beliefs has provenโค to be accomplished across collegeโ football. It alignsโ our football programโ with its competition in terms ofโข potentialโ postseason โopportunities and advancement,” said West Virginia Athletic Director โWrenโค Baker in a statement. Baker also highlighted the economic benefits ofโค a โขseventhโค home game in 2027,โ stating, “I am also awareโ of โฃthe importance ofโ a seventh home โgameโค in 2027 โfor our fans and โthe huge economic impact it โbrings to our state, cityโ and โtourism โฃdivision. visitors coming to West Virginia are not only critical for state tourism, but also to our local economy.”
