Remember how the ACC and UVA Athletics announced, way back on Dec. 1, that the Virginia-NC State football game scheduled to be played in Charlottesville in the 2026 season had been moved to Brazil?
Today is Jan. 21; word from the University of Virginia Freedom of Information Act office is, there is still no updated contract on file for the Brazil game.
All those people writing with authority online about how they know UVA is getting a lot of money to move the game, yeah, so much bluster.
It’s OK to presume; not OK to pretend you know something you don’t.
The backstory here: the two schools had signed a contract in 2024 spelling out the details of a home-and-home nonconference series that would include a game in Raleigh in 2025 and a return game in Charlottesville in 2026.
Per the contract, neither school would be paying the other a money guarantee, since the two were set to play each other in their respective home stadiums.
The circumstances have obviously changed with UVA’s home game moving to Brazil, to be played as a Week 0 game on Aug. 29 in Nilton Santos Stadium – capacity: 44,661 – in Rio de Janeiro.
ICYMI
One, the game is also now an ACC game, and not a nonconference game.
Two, UVA Athletics is giving up a home game, which means, money.
A home game at Scott Stadium is worth $1.5 million in ticket sales alone, and a conference home opener could fetch closer to $2 million.
For reference on what I would expect the game in Brazil should bring in, I’d point you to the deal that UVA Athletics struck with the Charlotte Sports Foundation for the two-game series with West Virginia for games in 2026 and 2032.
ICYMI
Both UVA and WVU are being guaranteed $2 million per game, with sellouts leading to payouts of $3.31 million per school per contest, per the details of the contract for the UVA-WVU series, also agreed to in 2024.
You have to expect that both Virginia and NC State are getting money for their trouble of moving their 2026 game to the other side of the world.
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Chris Graham
