When the ACC announced that they were making football teams play nine games a season against power conference schools, that forced some schools to scramble in terms of planning ahead with their future schedules. That was the case for Virginia Tech with its 2026 schedule.
It was announced that Virginia Tech and James Madison were cancelling their 2026 matchup in Blacksburg after the Hokies picked up SMU as a ninth conference game. You got the feeling that the JMU game was not going to be the only one that got canceled going forward. That ended up being the case on Monday.
Virginia Tech and Liberty announced future football games being canceled
On Monday, Virginia Tech and Liberty announced that their 2029 and 2030 non-conference football games were being canceled. The 2029 game was supposed to be in Blacksburg, while the 2030 matchup was scheduled for Lynchburg. The schools mutually canceled the games, according to a Virginia Tech press release.
The two schools will keep the scheduled games in 2027 and 2028, both in Blacksburg, but in 2029, it leaves one open date for Virginia Tech in terms of non-conference games. They are scheduled to play at Arizona and host Maryland that year in September. In 2030, the Hokies have scheduled non-conference games with Arizona and Notre Dame at home, with a trip to BYU in between.
Non-conference games are always subject to being canceled in a lot of situations. In 2027, the Hokies are scheduled to host Liberty to begin the season, as well as Maryland. In November of that year, they will play at Notre Dame.
Times are changing, and if Virginia Tech is going to play a non-conference game against a non-Power 4 conference school, those games should be played in Blacksburg. It is a no-win situation for the Hokies to travel to non-Power 4 conference schools in football. Remember Old Dominion and Marshall recently? Now with two open dates, we'll see what Virginia Tech does with them.