Year one of the Ross Hodge era in Morgantown will include a visit from an old friend, as well as the toughest road trips in the Big 12.
The conference announced its scheduling matrix for 2025-26, and the Mountaineers didn’t draw many favors. They’ll host Hodge’s former boss Grant McCasland and Texas Tech, but they’ll only see national runner-up Houston in the Lone Star State.
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Whether that’s a good or bad thing for West Virginia depends on how Hodge chooses to schedule. The league cut back from 20 conference games to 18 this season, in hopes of encouraging more challenging non-conference games. That was the difference last year for the Mountaineers, who were the last team out of the field in 2025.
Last year, the league featured five home-and-homes, plus one game each against the other 10 teams. With the cutback to 18 league games, the Mountaineers now only face three league opponents twice and 12 teams once.
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Who Will West Virginia Play Twice?
The Mountaineers will play a home-and-home against Cincinnati, Kansas State and UCF. Of those three, the Bearcats are the only one West Virginia played a home-and-home with in 2025.
The pairing makes sense. West Virginia’s closest opponent in the Big 12 is Cincinnati by several hundred miles, and the Bearcats are one of just three league schools located in the Eastern Time Zone. Since the Bearcats joined the league in 2023, they have faced West Virginia twice every season.
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It appears the league has designated that as a protected rivalry, something it has done for most schools. Other doubles include natural rivals Arizona and Arizona State, Kansas and Kansas State, Utah and BYU and Baylor and TCU.
Less clear is whether UCF has also been granted protected status. As both the third Eastern school and an easy trip to Orlando, it would make perfect sense for the Mountaineers to face the Knights twice, even though they didn’t do so last year. The Knights also drew Cincinnati twice, and it’s not unheard of for the league to give teams more than one rival. The Big 12 appears to have done that with Utah, as the Utes will face BYU and Colorado twice.
The Mountaineers’ third double opponent is Kansas State. That one’s not likely to be repeated next season; the only connection between the schools is that they’ve both employed Bob Huggins, although the Wildcats did so for only a season before he came back to Morgantown.
Who Will West Virginia Play in Morgantown?
The Mountaineers will host Kansas, Baylor, Colorado, BYU, Texas Tech and Utah, in addition to Cincinnati, K-State and UCF. Of those, the most intriguing is easily Texas Tech. Ross Hodge worked for Grant McCasland at North Texas, and now that the Red Raiders have returned to elite status, that program will be a measuring stick for Hodge’s team.
It’s a sign of problems in Lawrence that Bill Self’s Jayhawks are coming to Morgantown and nowhere near the headliner. But Kansas only got a No. 7 seed last year, and the Mountaineers won in Lawrence. The aura has faded a bit around the blue blood.
Who Will West Virginia Visit?
The Mountaineers will travel to Arizona, Arizona State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU and Houston, along with their double matchups. It’s hard to find a tougher pair than Houston and Arizona, given what Kelvin Sampson and Tommy Lloyd have built at their schools. Iowa State in Ames certainly won’t be easy, either.
These games will be critical for the Mountaineers, who must prove they can win on the road. Doing so will likely be the difference between making the tournament and sitting at home again.
When Will the Schedule Come Out?
The schedule usually arrives between July and September. Historically, West Virginia has been one of the earliest teams to release its men’s basketball schedule.
