West Virginia football future schedules coming into focus

As long as this season is played the Mountaineers are set to open against Florida State in Atlanta Sept. 5, while then hosting Eastern Kentucky (Sept. 12) and Maryland (Sept. 19).

But future schedules are already set as well.

The latest addition to the schedule came when Robert Morris announced that they will be traveling to Morgantown either Aug. 30 or Sept. 6 of the 2025 season. West Virginia already had a home-game scheduled with Pittsburgh set for Sept. 13, 2025 leaving one open slot for that season.

From 2021-24 the entire non-conference slate is already filled out. While the 2020 competition is set, the following year the Mountaineers will open at border rival Maryland Sept. 4, 2021, before hosting Long Island Sept. 11 and Virginia Tech Sept. 18 of that season.

The latter is a renewal of a longtime rivalry game that has been dormant for the most part since 2005 outside of the 2017 meeting between the two. The Mountaineers and Hokies have played a total of 52 times with West Virginia holding a 28-23-1 edge in the series.

The 2022 schedule is filled with regional rivalries as the Mountaineers will open Sept. 3 with the renewal of the Backyard Brawl at Pittsburgh. Then a home game with Towson is followed by a trip to Virginia Tech set for Sept. 24, 2022. Those are two of the most storied rivalry series on the schedule and the match-up with Pittsburgh is the first of a four-game series between the two.

The two have met a total of 104 times with Pittsburgh holding the 61-40-3, although the Mountaineers have won 15 of the last 22 on the gridiron. This will be the first time the one-time annual match-up will have been played since the 2011 campaign when West Virginia left the Big East.

The Mountaineers will open on the road at Penn State Sept. 2, 2023 and then host both Duquesne and Pittsburgh on back-to-back weekends the following year.

Then in 2024 West Virginia will open the season hosting Penn State and Albany before traveling to Pittsburgh Sept. 14 for the third of the four scheduled meetings.

The addition of Robert Morris to the 2025 schedule leaves one open slot to fill given the current nine-game conference slate in the Big 12.

Moving onto to 2026 and 2027, there is a home-and-home series with Alabama beginning in Morgantown Sept. 5, 2026 and then Sept. 4, 2027 in Tuscaloosa. The 2026 slate also features a road match-up with East Carolina set for Sept. 19, 2026 but the rest of the schedule is open.

All in all, there will be four games split between the two schools with Pittsburgh, home-and away meetings with Virginia Tech (2), Penn State (2), Alabama (2) and then the match-up at Maryland which is the back-end of a home-away from this coming season with the Mountaineers set to host the Terrapins.

There is obviously a concentrated regional feel to the schedule with the Mountaineers renewing rivalries with many of the traditional opponents that had been staples of the schedule for years.

The trip to East Carolina and FCS home match-ups with Long Island, Towson, Duquesne, Albany and Robert Morris round out the schedules as of today providing a nice balance.

It’s a nice mix of closer regional opponents to help fans lighten the load that comes with the distance from Big 12 Conference match-ups while providing balance as well.

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