The NC State Wolfpack vs. Virginia Cavaliers football game in 2026, which was scheduled to be played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been relocated to Charlottesville, Va., according to an official announcement from both schools Wednesday.
Following extensive review with operational partners and international stakeholders, the 2026 NC State at Virginia football game, originally scheduled to be played in Brazil, will be relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, for this conference matchup.
This change follows communication from Athlete Advantage, which informed the ACC and participating schools that the event could not be conducted.
NC State and Virginia were slated to square off at Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, which is Week Zero this season. Under current NCAA rules, college football games played in foreign countries are eligible to be contested in Week Zero, which is the unofficial name for the Saturday that is one week prior to Labor Day weekend.
According to the joint release, the ACC, NC State and Virginia are “…working with the NCAA and ESPN to confirm the game will remain on the originally scheduled date of Saturday, August 29.” Since the game is now going to be played in the United States, the schools would need a waiver from the NCAA to keep the game in Week Zero.
As it stands now, the NC State-Virginia game is scheduled for a 3:30pm ET kickoff on Aug. 29 with television coverage via ESPN.
The NC State-Virginia matchup next season was scheduled to be the second of a non-conference home-and-home series between the two ACC schools. However, the ACC announced earlier this year that the game will be a conference contest.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
OUTSTANDING!!!
Enough outsourcing of football to places that don’t care about the game anyway.
The NFL should do the same.
That was the first thought that occurred to me. I will bet that they couldn’t sell enough tickets for that game. I mean the NFL “barely” sold out their two games in Brazil and I will absolutely bet that was the case for this game with two fringe ACC teams in a country that probably doesn’t know nor understands American football. Ireland is different- that game has become an annual event. This game was flawed from the start. Same thing I will bet happened with the Michigan-WMU that was supposed to be played in Germany.
Hank: Even the CFB games in Ireland are mostly attended by Americans who make the trip to attend the game and vacation in an English-speaking country. Brazil is farther away, cost more to travel to, and is more daunting to most American tourists.
JM: The NFL won’t do the same because they are intent on growing their global audience and can actually sell out their overseas games.
You might want to check the stats on the “sell out” Rich. I hear the games in London even are still a lot of free seats.
I understand the intent of the league, which is why I said they play in places that don’t care about the game. Go ahead and put two teams in London and see how quickly it fails. It might work in Toronto, but the Bills won’t allow that to happen.
Richard really wants NFL/college teams to take home games away from their fans
USA: I could care less about the NFL (which, BTW, still averages as many or more homes games as when they played 16 games in the regular season, so I don’t know how you managed to survive that era or any time before then) and when it comes to college football, many fans like to travel. Just look at bowl games.
Richard I would not mind seeing Bears vs Packers in London, Eagles vs Commanders in Munich or Bills vs Dolphins in Paris.
I disagree with you on what you wrote Dan. Very Strongly.
Knowing the NFL, eventually they are going to move those divisional matchups you mentioned to those places or some other location.
Matt, You have your in title of your opinion although I do support the NFL having home games unprotected for international games.
Ummmmm
lol thats gotta hurt #losers #usa250
Thinking there must be at least a few very zealous Cavalier or Wolfpack fans holding round trip airline tickets to Rio de Janeiro who are pretty upset with this announcement! Hope they are refundable!
I would agree that the cancellation is likely a result of low ticket sales from 2 schools that aren’t known as football powerhouses. Maybe if this was Florida St and Clemson they would get enough tickets sold. But safety is a huge concern. Rio de Janeiro is an incredibly unsafe city at the moment (I lived there 25 years ago). I’m shocked the NFL (or a proposed CFB game) is holding a game in Rio when Sao Paulo is significantly safer.