Virginia Tech Adds Gardner-Webb to 2028 Football Schedule

Virginia Tech Football announced today that it will host FCS program Gardner-Webb to open the 2028 football season.

This game will be in the new week 1 (formerly week 0) on August 26th, 2028. This will be the first ever football matchup between the Hokies and Bulldogs and the first time that VT has played on August 26th.

This will also be the third-straight season that VT opens against a FCS opponent after opening against VMI this season and The Citadel next season.

Both the 2027 and 2028 FCS openers were added to the schedule after the arrival of James Franklin as VT's football head coach and Brian White as VT's athletic director. White stated recently on the Tech Sideline Podcast that it his scheduling preference for VT to have seven home football games every season. This is in line with that as VT now has three non-conference home games to pair with four conference home games in 2028.

This also means that VT will play ten Power 4 opponents each of the first three seasons of the James Franklin era. That is currently schedule to increase to 11 in 2029 though given the preferences of Franklin and White, it definitely seems possible that could change and is something to monitor on the scheduling front moving forward.