Virginia’s 2026 schedule keeps most of the action close to home, but the Cavaliers still have a few trips that are worth mapping out before the season gets rolling.
Seven of Virginia’s 12 games will be played in Charlottesville, and the other five avoid the kind of brutal cross-country haul that can turn a road trip into a survival test. That leaves fans with a manageable slate of away dates, plus one neutral-site game, and a few different ways to get there depending on how much time and pain tolerance you’ve got.
The easiest trip on the board is Blacksburg. Virginia Tech sits just under 150 miles from Charlottesville, and the drive should take about two and a half hours.
Fans can also fly from Washington International Dulles Airport to Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport and then continue to Blacksburg by car or bus, which takes a little over two hours total. The hard part may not be the travel at all - it may be getting a seat.
Lane Stadium should be full for a major rivalry game, but if you can pull it off, the Commonwealth Clash in Blacksburg is the kind of atmosphere that makes the trip worth it.
Wake Forest is next in the lineup by distance. Winston-Salem is 207 miles from Charlottesville, with an estimated drive of three hours and 21 minutes.
And if you’re making that trip, there’s an extra incentive: a Culver’s is close to Wake Forest. If you’ve never had the Wisconsin-born chain, the menu has enough to justify a stop - custard, a butter burger, cheese curds, and more.
Charlotte is a little farther out at 272 miles, with a drive that should take four hours and 20 minutes. There’s also a direct flight from Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport that runs about one hour and 27 minutes, and one round-trip ticket can be found for under $300.
Charlotte has a Culver’s too, but that’s not really the draw. Bank of America Stadium is a fun place to watch a game, and the area around it is loaded with strong restaurants.
The city also has some top-notch coffee shops and farmers' markets.
Once you get to Florida State, the trip starts to feel serious. Charlottesville to Florida State is about 739 miles and roughly 12 hours by car, most likely through I-95, which is like playing Russian roulette with weapons of mass destruction.
If you do decide to drive, though, there’s at least some reward for the grind: three different Buc-ee’s stops are on the table. Buc-ee’s is an oasis in the desert, a warm blanket on a chilly winter’s eve.
You get clean-ish bathrooms, genuinely good food, tons of gas pumps, and the pinnacle of American consumerism. Worth it.
Flying is the smarter route if you’re heading to Tallahassee. One option is to connect through Charlotte or Atlanta, which would trim a few hours off the trip. The quickest path is a direct flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), which takes just under two and a half hours.
The longest trek belongs to Dallas. The best move is to fly from DCA to Dallas Love Field Airport, a trip that takes about three and a half hours.
That’s the reasonable choice. The unhinged choice is to drive from Charlottesville to Dallas, a journey of 18-plus hours and 1,208 miles.
That route cuts through southwestern Virginia, the full length of Tennessee, a big chunk of Arkansas, and eastern Texas. Along the way, you could make stops at five-plus Buc-ee’s, Memphis, Knoxville, Nashville and Little Rock.
And if getting to games in person turns out to be too much of a hassle, Virginia will still be on national TV at least a few times this year, including Saturday, Sept. 19 vs West Virginia at 7:30 on ACC Network.
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Middlebrooks value is easy to see because he can help in more than one way, which is exactly the sort of trait that can tilt a camp battle. Gibson has brought similar energy to the receiver room, where Virginia is still sorting out roles and looking for the right fit in the slot, so both players have made this one of the more interesting position stories around the program as practice rolls on. [Read more 🡒]