We are now just a few months away from the long-anticipated beginning of the 2025-26 season and the Ryan Odom era in Charlottesville. Thursday marked another significant step towards that day — the release of Virginia’s non-conference schedule.
Many programs around the country have taken advantage of the opportunity to play public preseason scrimmages in the recent years, and Virginia has followed suit. Wahoos fans will get their first glimpse of practically an entirely new roster with an exhibition game at Vanderbilt on Thursday, October 16th, and again, hosting Villanova on Friday, October 24th.
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Regular season action tips off on Monday, November 3rd with a home game against Rider, just the second all-time meeting between the two programs. The Cavaliers will host six additional buy games — NC Central on November 7th, Hampton on November 11th, Marshall on November 15th, Queens (NC) on November 28th, Maryland Eastern Shore on December 9th, and American on December 22nd. Hampton is the only one of the aforementioned opponents inside Torvik’s projected top 200, after Ivan Thomas just led the Pirates to their first winning season since 2018-19.
The highlight of UVA’s non-conference schedule is a road game at Texas on Wednesday, December 3rd, as the ‘Hoos hope to help put together more respectable showing in the ACC-SEC Challenge. The Longhorns project as an NCAA Tournament team once again, returning a veteran backcourt in Tremon Mark and Jordan Pope.
Virginia will also take on Maryland on Saturday, December 20th at JPJ, the start of what appears to be a renewed yearly rivalry. We will see a familiar face on the opposite bench in this one in Buzz Williams — who previously coached at Virginia Tech, and most recently at Texas A&M.
During Feast Week, the Wahoos will travel to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, matching up against Northwestern on Friday, November 21st as well as Butler the following Sunday. A bit of a boring MTE during Odom’s first year, both in terms of opponent quality and location, but no complaints will be made if Virginia walks away 2-0.
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Aside from Texas, Virginia’s best opportunity to bolster their resume will come from a pair of neutral site contests.
On Saturday, December 6th, the Cavaliers will clash with Dayton in Charlotte, North Carolina. You know what else will be taking place in the Queen City that weekend? The ACC Football Championship! It’s good to dream big, folks.
Furthermore, the program will spend their Valentine’s Day Saturdays in Nashville, Tennessee, taking a break from their ACC slate to match up with Ohio State. This is a great opportunity for UVA to grab a Quadrant 1 victory in February amidst a league where those types of opportunities have previously been few and far between. A UVA win would go along way towards the ACC’s bracketology implications as a whole.
Overall, Odom’s first non-conference schedule is on the easier side, but in a strategic way. The Cavaliers will get their feet wet with opponents they are expected to handle, giving the roster time to gel together before the competition picks up.
