Maryland Football Shortens Virginia Tech Series, Adds Home and Home With Baylor

The Terps' old ACC foe will only be making one trip to College Park after they agreed to cancel two future games.

Sep 13, 2025; College Park, Maryland, USA; The Maryland Terrapins take the field for their game against the Towson Tigers at SECU Stadium. | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

The Maryland football program is making a change to their future non-conference schedules.

As first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel, the Terps are cutting two games from their original agreement with ACC opponent Virginia Tech. The teams will still meet this fall and in 2029, but not the two years in between.

Instead, Mike Locksley's group will host Baylor in 2027 before making a return trip to Waco in 2028. Maryland Athletics confirmed the replacement in a press release.

Terps 🐢 vs. Bears 🐻

A home-and-home series is set for 2027-28.

📰 https://t.co/qy12hjV3mt pic.twitter.com/FcUmNAibYa

— Maryland Football (@TerpsFootball) May 29, 2026

While the change may seem abrupt, there is very solid reasoning for it.

The ACC is transitioning to a nine-game conference schedule beginning this fall, and while the Hokies were technically not overscheduled in 2027 or 2028, they did not have FCS opponents as part of their arrangements.

With Notre Dame already on the calendar both years as part of their scheduling agreement with the conference, it makes more sense for James Franklin's team to drop a power conference opponent as opposed to two home games against Liberty - even with a moderate buyout attached.

To extract itself from those two games against Maryland, Virginia Tech paid UMD $600,000, per university source.

— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) May 29, 2026

Meanwhile, Baylor still needed one more FBS opponent for 2027 and 2028. That need is now addressed, and in a way that allows Maryland to have seven home games both years.

The Terps and Bears have met only twice - a home-and-home series in 1955-56 where the visitor won both contests.

The last time Maryland played a team from the Lone Star state was a one-off win over SMU in 2022. Before that, it was a home-and-home with Texas in 2017-18. The Terps also took both games of that series in upset fashion.

Maryland's future schedules now look like this:

2026

• Saturday, September 5 vs. Hampton Pirates (FCS)

• Saturday, September 12 at UConn Huskies

• Saturday, September 19 vs. Virginia Tech Hokies

• Saturday, September 26 vs. UCLA Bruins

• Saturday, October 3 at Nebraska Cornhuskers

• Saturday, October 10 at Ohio State Buckeyes

• Saturday, October 17 vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

• Saturday, October 31 vs. Illinois Fighting Illini

• Saturday, November 7 at Purdue Boilermakers

• Saturday, November 14 vs. Wisconsin Badgers

• Saturday, November 21 at USC Trojans

• Saturday, November 28 vs. Penn State Nittany Lions

2027

• Saturday, September 4 vs James Madison

• Saturday, September 11 vs Youngstown State (FCS)

• Saturday, September 18 vs Baylor

• Big Ten Home: Minnesota, Oregon, Purdue, USC

• Big Ten Road: Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers, Washington

2028

• Saturday, September 2 vs Towson (FCS)

• Saturday, September 9 vs Delaware

• Saturday, September 16 at Baylor

• Big Ten Home: Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, Washington

• Big Ten Road: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, UCLA

In other schedule news, start times for the first three weeks of the upcoming season were released, and two of the Terps non-conference games will be in primetime.

The rest of the start times will be revealed after the start of the season.

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