MORGANTOWN — Alabama and West Virginia have agreed to a two-year home-and-home football series in 2026 and 2027, the schools announced Friday.
The Mountaineers will host the Crimson Tide on Sept. 5, 2026, and return the visit to Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Sept. 4, 2027.
“With its great tradition and history, it will be exciting to host the Crimson Tide in Morgantown, and it will provide our fans with a great trip to visit Tuscaloosa the following season,” WVU athletics director Shane Lyons said in a school release. “Our non-conference football scheduling and the quality of opponents we are playing continue to be second to none.”
Lyons served as Alabama’s deputy director of athletics from 2011-’15 before replacing Oliver Luck at WVU.
“This series gives our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans the opportunity to play in and experience outstanding on-campus matchups to open the 2026 and 2027 seasons,” Alabama AD Greg Byrne said. “As we continue to build out our future schedules, we will work to include even more home-and-homes of this caliber.”
The Mountaineers and Crimson Tide have played once before, a 33-23 Alabama win in the 2014 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.
“We are excited to be able to add West Virginia University to our 2026 and 2027 non-conference schedules with a home-and-home series,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban. “West Virginia is annually one of the best teams in the nation and we believe playing this kind of competition only makes our team better, while providing a lot of excitement for both fan bases.”
The 2026 game will be a homecoming for Saban provided he does not retire before then. The Marion County native was a WVU assistant coach from 1978-’79. Saban, who has won six national championships, would be 74 years old at the start of the 2026 season. His current contract runs through 2025.
The series continues a habit of strong nonconference scheduling by West Virginia in the 2020s. WVU also has home-and-homes scheduled with Virginia Tech (2021-’22), Pitt (2022-’25) and Penn State (2023-’24).
