Alabama, West Virginia cancel home and home series in 2026, 2027

The Alabama Crimson Tide and West Virginia Mountaineers have canceled their home and home series, per On3’s Brett McMurphy. The series was originally scheduled to be played during the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

This comes as the SEC is moving from an eight game conference schedule to a nine game conference schedule. Because of that change, the Crimson Tide didn’t need to pay a buyout for the canceled series, which they otherwise would have if they wanted to end this series.

Alabama had three games on its non-conference schedule for the 2026 season prior to the decision to cancel with West Virginia. That includes games against Florida State and USF. Since dropping the home-and-home with West Virginia, the Crimson Tide reportedly also added a single game in 2026 with ECU. In 2027, Alabama had two games scheduled, including against West Virginia and Ohio State. Now, only Ohio State remains on the schedule.

As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers, they will now need to fill a gap on their schedule in each of the 2026 and 2027 seasons. Currently, West Virginia has UT Martin and Virginia scheduled for 2026. The Mountaineers have VMI and Ohio scheduled for 2027, meaning they now only have one non-conference P4 game on the books for those seasons.

The SEC made the decision to move to nine conference games annually earlier in August. One key aspect of that move is that it does require each SEC team to maintain at least one P4 non-conference opponent annually. For some schools, like Georgia, that opponent is fairly set in stone with their in-state rival, Georgia Tech. Alabama, however, does not have any such non-conference rival that they play annually. Since Alabama had two P4 games scheduled in the non-conference for each 2026 and 2027, they made the decision to cut down one of those, likely owing to the addition of another SEC game.

For the SEC, the move to nine conference games was a long time coming. Being at eight conference games while expanding to 16 teams in the conference made it difficult for everyone to continue to play one another while also maintaining traditional rivalries. It was debated for some time, but a decision that Greg Sankey recently explained was important to make.

“A lot of factors involved – you and I have talked about bowl eligibility, the CFP,” Sankey said. “Some of the work by the CFP so far this year is progress. It’s not a destination, but the honoring of schedule strength that’s been communicated is really important for the Southeastern Conference. Being leaders in college football, continuing to play games against non-conference opponents at a high level in addition to the nine games. I think that’s a representation of fulfilling that leadership responsibility. That’s not something that’s done every place. Not everyone agrees. I’m certain that our coaches are concerned about the competitive aspect. We’ve got to continue to improve the selection process for the postseason.”

The SEC will continue to play eight conference games for the 2025 season before the expansion begins in 2026. West Virginia and the Big 12, meanwhile, already played nine conference games.