The SEC’s announcement that it would be moving to a nine-game conference schedule was always going to bring some non-conference scheduling ramifications, and Tuesday we saw that in action as Alabama and West Virginia announced they mutually agreed to cancel their home-and-home series set for 2026 and 2027.
In Alabama’s release, the team specifically cited the nine-game schedule as the reason for the change, and announced it would be adding a non-conference home game against East Carolina in 2026 to fill the vacant spot left by the loss of the West Virginia game. West Virginia, meanwhile, will add Coastal Carolina to its 2026 schedule and plans to take the open 2027 date and add a seventh home game.
“This scheduling philosophy has proven to be successful across college football. It aligns our football program with its competition in terms of potential postseason opportunities and advancement,” West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker said. “I am also aware of the importance of a seventh home game in 2027 for our fans and the huge economic impact it brings to our state, city and tourism division. Visitors coming to West Virginia are not only critical for state tourism, but also to our local economy.”
“We are proud of the number of high-quality home-and-home non-conference games we have scheduled for the next 10 years,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said. “That being said, we know that college athletics has been evolving and changing rapidly over the last few years, and it made sense for us to make these adjustments on our future schedules. We have a bit more flexibility as we transition to a nine-game format in the Southeastern Conference, and it gives us the opportunity to further evaluate how strength of schedule is evaluated for the College Football Playoff. Between the other home-and-homes as well as conference games, we will continue to have a solid strength of schedule, which is good for our team, fans and college football.”
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Alabama’s upcoming home-and-home series include:
The Tide will also complete their home-and-home series with Wisconsin this year when the Badgers come to Tuscaloosa, and still have a 2034 road game with Virginia Tech on the schedule. That said, after dropping back to just one P4 non-conference opponent in 2026 and 2027, it’s fair to wonder if Alabama will look to drop some of their other future series to avoid having an 11-game power conference slate each season.
Those decisions will be made at a later date after seeing how College Football Playoff expansion shakes out and once they see the impact of the new nine-game SEC schedule.
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