Alabama, West Virginia Cancel Home-and-Home Football Series

Alabama was scheduled to open the 2026 season at West Virginia, but with the Southeastern Conference's recent announcement of an expansion to nine conference games starting next season, both schools have agreed to cancel the home-and-home series.

"We are proud of the number of high-quality home-and-home non-conference games we have scheduled for the next 10 years," Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne said in a press release. "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 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."

West Virginia was scheduled to make the return trip to Tuscaloosa in 2027. Both games have been cancelled. Rich Rodriguez is entering his first season in his second stint as the Mountaineers' head coach. Alabama and West Virginia have only played one time with the Crimson Tide coming away with a 33-23 victory inside the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the 2014 season opener.

Alabama will now open the 2026 season at home inside Bryant-Denny Stadium against Eastern Carolina.

The SEC has not announced which nine teams Alabama will face or who its three permanent opponents will be. Including this year, the Crimson Tide currently has 10 non-conference, home-and-homes scheduled over the next 11 seasons. Some of these are also subject to change with the added conference game.

Future home-and-home matchups for Alabama football

2025: at Florida State, Wisconsin

2026: Florida State

2027: at Ohio State

2028: Ohio State, at Oklahoma State

2029: at Notre Dame, Oklahoma State

2030: at Georgia Tech, Notre Dame

2031: Georgia Tech, at Boston College

2032: Arizona, at Minnesota

2033: at Arizona, Minnesota

2034: at Virginia Tech, Boston College

2035: Virginia Tech

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