Alabama football cancels major nonconference series following SEC’s move to 9-game slate
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Alabama has canceled a home-and-home series with West Virginia, the athletic department announced on Tuesday.
The news comes just days after the SEC announced it will move to a 9-game conference format in 2026. The Crimson Tide and Mountaineers were scheduled to face off in 2026 and 2027. Instead of WVU, Alabama will battle East Carolina in 2026.
Alabama does still have at least 1 non-SEC foe from a power conference on its schedule for each of those campaigns. The Crimson Tide are scheduled to host Florida State in 2026 and will go on the road to face Ohio State in Columbus in 2027.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
Alabama also has future nonconference series scheduled vs. programs like Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Boston College and more. It’s unclear at this time if those series will also be impacted.
This development is likely particularly disappointing for College GameDay teammates Nick Saban and Pat McAfee. Saban is a West Virginia native and was briefly a position coach for the Mountaineers early on in his career. McAfee was a standout punter and kicker for WVU before moving on to the NFL.
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Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
