Virginia’s 2026 season opener will stay on home soil, and Tony Elliott is choosing to see the upside.
What was originally planned as a trip to Brazil has been scrapped, and the Cavaliers will now open Week Zero against NC State at Scott Stadium. The change removes the novelty of an international stage, but it also gives Virginia a chance to start the year in front of what it hopes will be a full house in Charlottesville.
Elliott acknowledged the disappointment on Wednesday at the ACC Kickoff preseason media event, but he also made clear he understands why the idea had appeal.
"It's bittersweet, right?" Elliott said Wednesday at the ACC Kickoff preseason media event.
"Now that we were kind of on the back end of the logistical nightmares and things associated with it, I was getting excited to think about how many guys may never travel outside the country again. This might be their one chance to experience something like that."
The Brazil plan had been in motion for months before falling apart. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said concerns surfaced in May about whether the game could actually be staged.
"The Brazil game was something that Virginia and N.C. State kind of came together on, and we started to talk about that opportunity," Phillips said.
"You need to have a sponsor. There has to be some support in another country to be able to pull this game together.
Things seemed to be going along well over the course of the last seven or eight months. But very truthfully, I think it was in May, there was some serious doubt about whether the city and the area involved, the managing area involved, would be able to pull this game off."
Now the focus shifts to Charlottesville, where Virginia gets an ACC opener that carries its own kind of weight without ever leaving the country.
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