Virginia Tech and James Madison announced the cancellation of their 2026 non-conference matchup on Wednesday, preventing what could have been an intriguing September showdown between the Commonwealth schools.
The game was supposed to be played on Sept. 26 in Blacksburg, which would have been the schools' first meeting since the infamous 2010 contest, when the Dukes, then in the FCS, sprung a 21-16 upset of the No. 13 Hokies in Lane Stadium.
The cancellation makes room on the Hokies' schedule for a ninth opponent from the ACC, which moves from an eight- to nine-game schedule for the first time this year.
The Tech-JMU contract, which was signed in 2023, calls for an $800,000 payout from the breaching party. The Hokies and Dukes were originally scheduled to play on Sept. 20, 2025, but the game was pushed back a season in 2023.
The game would have featured teams with new head coaches, with James Franklin taking over the Hokies and Billy Napier leading the Dukes. James Madison, which lost coach Bob Chesney to UCLA this offseason, went 12-2 last year, won the Sun Belt and qualified for the College Football Championship, where it lost to Oregon as the 12 seed.
Tech still has non-league matchups scheduled at home against VMI (Sept. 5), Old Dominion (Sept. 12) and on the road at Maryland (Sept. 19).
The Hokies' conference schedule includes home games against Virginia, Georgia Tech, Pitt and Stanford and road contests against Miami, Boston College, Cal, Clemson and SMU. The full ACC schedule, with dates, will be released later this month.
As of now, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Cal, Stanford and Clemson are the only schools that aren't currently locked into a matchup on Sept. 26 and could serve as the Hokies' ACC opener, though schedules are subject to change.
Following the cancellation, JMU announced the addition of a game at San Diego State on Sept. 19.