The Richmond Spiders have announced their 2025 football schedule, their first as a football-only member of the Patriot League.
Richmond was previously a member of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) since the 2007 season, but announced a move to the Patriot League last May.
Richmond is set to open the 2025 season on Saturday, Aug. 30 with a Patriot League contest on the road against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. That season-opener is then followed by consecutive non-conference contests on the road against the Wofford Terriers on Sept. 6 and the North Carolina Tar Heels on Sept. 13.
Richmond then opens its home docket at E. Claiborne Robins Stadium in Richmond, Va., with non-conference games against the VMI Keydets on Sept. 20 and the Howard Bison on Sept. 27.
The Spiders return to Patriot League action on Oct. 4 on the road against Bucknell, and five more league games follow — at Colgate on Oct. 11, vs. Holy Cross on Oct. 18 (Homecoming), vs. Fordham on Nov. 1, at Georgetown on Nov. 8, vs. Lafayette on Nov. 15.
Richmond closes the 2025 regular-season at the William & Mary Tribe in The Capital Cup on Nov. 22.
Below is Richmond’s complete schedule for the 2025 season, plus a link to their schedule page which will be updated with kickoff times and TV as they are announced:
2025 Richmond Football Schedule
- 08/30 – at Lehigh*
- 09/06 – at Wofford
- 09/13 – at North Carolina
- 09/20 – VMI
- 09/27 – Howard
- 10/04 – at Bucknell*
- 10/11 – at Colgate*
- 10/18 – Holy Cross*
- 10/25 – OFF
- 11/01 – Fordham*
- 11/08 – at Georgetown*
- 11/15 – Lafayette*
- 11/22 – at William & Mary
* Patriot League contest.
Richmond finished the 2024 season 10-3 overall and 8-0 in CAA action. The Spiders claimed the CAA title and advanced to the FCS Playoffs, but lost at home in the first round against Lehigh, 20-16.
The season opener should be a fun one, with the Spiders given a chance to avenge their playoff disappointment against Lehigh. And they have a great chance to win the League in their inaugural season.
I don’t know why Richmond left the CAA. I know they’re a member of the A10, which doesn’t have football, so they can be a football member of whichever conference. I guess since Richmond is a small private school, they’re a better fit for the Patriot than CAA, but the CAA has plenty of small football-only schools, like Villanova and Bryant.
Alot of it has had to do with the recent departures schools to the FBS, including Delaware, and results of smaller schools having to replace (i.e., Stony Brook, NC A&T, Bryant) not having natural rivalries and smaller comparable football budgets.
This also then boils over to lower media revenue opportunities and lower gate revenues the last few seasons. The FloSports deal has also hurt the league long term, making games more expensive/less accessible to fans and alumni.
All of this has also escalated talks that the CAA may lose Villanova to the Patriot, W&M to the SoCon. For Richmond it may have been preemptive of those moves but to also align itself with more natural rivals and a better media distribution opportunity being on ESPN+
I think Richmond made a smart move here as I believe Villanova will make a similar move out of the CAA imo. The schools coming into the CAA do not have the same size Football budgets as Delaware and James Madison who left and Richmond will enjoy better media distribution with ESPN+.
I would hope William and Mary would make the same move but it’s more complicated as they play in the CAA for all sports not just Football and the Patriot is very weak in Basketball with very low attendance.
With that said, with all the changes coming in to play with college sports, all this could blow up very quickly.