WVU Adds Home Game vs. Big Ten School to 2027 Football Schedule

A new opponent has been added to next year's slate.

Oct 17, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez talks to an official during the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Tuesday morning, West Virginia Director of Athletics Wren Baker announced that the football team has added a home game against Purdue for the 2027 season. The date for the game will be announced at a later date when the rest of the non-conference schedule is finalized.

Baker's statement via press release

“We are looking forward to hosting Purdue in Morgantown next season for the first time since 1995,” Baker said. “It is an important addition for us, because it now gives us 10 Power 4 games on our schedule, which is a requirement in the expanded College Football Playoff. It also gives us a regional Big Ten opponent visiting Milan Puskar Stadium, which I know Mountaineer Nation will be excited about. With the addition of Purdue, we will have further announcements on our 2027 schedule as we finalize everything in the coming days."

As Baker mentioned, the Mountaineers only had nine Power Four games on their schedule for next year, and when the College Football Playoff expands to 24, every P4 school must have a minimum of 10 Power Four opponents on its schedule.

The current schedule and Big 12 opponents on WVU's 2027 schedule

8/28 vs. Ohio
9/4 vs. Southern Miss
9/11 vs. VMI

Big 12 home games: Arizona State, BYU, Iowa State, UCF
Big 12 road games: Baylor, Cincinnati, Colorado, Kansas State, Oklahoma State

West Virginia will be canceling one of the three non-conference games listed above, and without speculating too much, I would imagine they would like to keep VMI on the schedule, giving them an FCS game, which just about everyone in the country likes to have. The home game with Ohio is part of a 2-for-1 with the other home game against the Bobcats, scheduled to take place in 2029.

I don't know that it would be ideal to open the season against a Power Four opponent, but it could be a possibility if Ohio is the game they cancel and are unable to move things around.

Purdue's current non-conference schedule consists of games against UAlbany (8/28), at Notre Dame (9/4), and Miami Ohio (9/11).

This will be the third all-time meeting between the Mountaineers and Boilermakers, with the series currently being tied at one apiece. Purdue won 26-24 in Morgantown in 1995, and then WVU won 20-6 in West Lafayette the following season.

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