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Both coming off breakthrough football seasons, Virginia and Vanderbilt announced a future two-game, home-and-home football series on Friday morning.
The Cavaliers, who won a school-record 11 games in 2025, will visit Nashville's FirstBank Stadium on Sept. 16, 2028. The return matchup will take place in Scott Stadium in 2031 on a date to be announced. Vanderbilt will become the first Southeastern Conference opponent to visit Charlottesville since South Carolina in 2002.
A new foe has appeared‼️
2028 – Nashville, TN
2031 – Charlottesville, VA#GoHoos 🔶⚔️🔷 pic.twitter.com/JrF64gWjIM
The 2028 meeting will be the first between the schools since 1975. Vanderbilt holds a 12-7-2 advantage in the series, which dates back to 1895. The Cavaliers won that initial meeting 6-4 in Atlanta.
Both programs, known for their strong academics, enjoyed rarified success on the field in the 2025 season. While the Cavaliers won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship and defeated Missouri in the Gator Bowl, the Commodores also set a school record with 10 victories under coach Clark Lea. Senior quarterback Diego Pavia was the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Lea has transformed Vanderbilt's program in largely the same way Tony Elliott has rebuilt the Cavaliers. In 2021, Lea took over a team that had gone 0-9 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The Commodores went just 9-27 over his first three years, but posted a 7-6 record and won the Birmingham Bowl in 2024 for its first winning season in a decade, then went 10-3 and reached the ReliaQuest Bowl last season.
Virginia's three 2028 nonconference opponents are now set. The Cavaliers will visit Vanderbilt on Sept. 16, 2028, host Richmond a week later and will host James Madison University on a date to be announced.
Will these two programs continue to enjoy success after breakout seasons in 2026? While we discussed the breakout year from Vanderbilt, UVA was right there with them in terms of nearly making the College Football Playoff. Heading into the final weekend, UVA had a chance to beat Duke for the second time in a matter of weeks, but they fell short in overtime and that prevented them from having arguably the best season in school history.
Non-conference scheduling has come under the microscope when it comes to College Football Playoff expansion, and some big non-conference meetings are being canceled. UVA has made a future game with one CFP participant in James Madison, and now they have a future series against a team that nearly made the CFP and appears to be a program on the rise.
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Steve DeShazo spent 39 years as sports editor, reporter and columnist for The Free Lance-Star newspaper in Fredericksburg, Va. He has covered University of Virginia sports for more than four decades, dating to his undergraduate days in the 1980s when he crossed paths with Ralph Sampson. He currently resides with his wife Christine in Arlington, Va., where he enjoys live music, playing pickup basketball and walking his 100-pound dog, Bear.
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