Virginia Tech Women's Basketball Release 2025-26 Non-Conference Schedule

It might be football season, but college basketball is around the corner! The Virginia Tech women’s basketball program announced its non-conference schedule for the 2025-26 season on Friday. The schedule includes nine home games and an interesting away matchup against JMU. Other key games will include two contests in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands against BYU and then either Oregon State or Vanderbilt. The other key non-conference game will be a home contest against Florida in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Here is a look at the full non-conference schedule and some key points about each opponent, including matchups last year that help provide a glimpse of how the teams performed..The NET rating for each opponent is from the 2024-25 season.

Virginia Tech starts the season with five straight home contests. The Hokies play Towson on Nov. 4 in Cassell; it is the first time the two teams have played each other since 1990. Towson finished 11th in the Coastal Athletic Conference and ended up losing to Campbell in the quarterfinals of the CAA post-season tournament. (Note that Campbell was the runner-up in the conference tournament and won the first round again against Coastal Carolina). Towson’s last season record included a 85-41 loss to West Virginia, a 76-55 loss to George Mason, and a 98-63 loss to then #11 Maryland.

The Loyola Maryland Greyhounds will visit Cassell on Nov. 9. Loyola finished 9th in the 10-team Patriot League. Notable games included an 85-54 loss to JMU and a 97-54 loss to Notre Dame. The Greyholds lost in the first round of the Patriot League championship.

Virginia Tech continues its non-conference homestand against Gardner-Webb on Nov. 13, Gardner-Webb finished the 2024-25 season 6th in the 8-team Big South Conference. In games against some of Virginia Tech’s upcoming opponents, Gardner-Webb defeated Presbyterian 62-58 and lost to Radford three times by an average score of 3 points. In games against higher-level competition, the Bulldogs lost to James Madison University by a 102-69 score and lost to Wake Forest by a 73-52 score. 

The home game against Coastal Carolina on Nov. 15 will be one to keep an eye on. The Chanticleers finished third in the Sun Belt Conference last season with a 23-9 overall and 12-6 conference record . Coastal Carolina lost to NC State 89-68 and eventual conference champion JMU twice by 20 points in their first matchup and only 7 points in their second matchup. The two rivals faced off again in their conference tournament, with the Chanticleers losing again 89-75. Coastal Carolina was selected to play in the WBIT but bowed out in a narrow first round loss to Campbell.

Niagara will visit Cassell on Nov. 20. The Purple Eagles finished last in the 13-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. After a 24-loss to Syracuse, Niagara proceeded to lose by 60 points each to #16 ranked West Virginia and Penn State.

Virginia Tech travels up I-81 for an interesting in-state matchup against JMU on Nov. 23. JMU finished last season with a 30-6 overall record and went 18-0 in the Sun Belt conference. The Dukes defeated Florida 77-72 but lost to #6 Notre Dame 92-46,  #3 Texas 93-63, and #21 NC State 61-47. Florida turned the ball over 23 times and shot 25% from the 3-pt line.  JMU made a post-season run in the WBIT before losing to 3-seed Belmont in Harrisonburg.

The Virginia Tech women then travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands over Thanksgiving to play in the Paradise Jam. The Hokies will face BYU on Nov. 27 for the first time in program history.  BYU finished 14th in the 16-team Big 12 conference with a 4-14 conference record. Even with its record, the Bears did score a 68-64 win against 3rd place Oklahoma State at home but lost games such as 83-71 to 2nd place Baylor, 79-47 to #11 TCU, 92-65 to #13 Kansas State, and 66-53 to #18 West Virginia.  BYU played Texas Tech but lost 70-65.

Virginia Tech will then play either Oregon State or Vanderbilt in the second round of the tournament on Nov. 29. Oregon State finished 4th in the 11-team West Coast Conference.  In match-ups against ACC opponents, Oregon State defeated Boston College 54-49 in the Bahamas last season but lost to Miami (61-56) and then to UNC (70-49) in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Vanderbilt finished 8th in the SEC and to continue the comparison against ACC opponents, Vanderbilt defeated Miami 88-70. In another interesting result versus a common opponent, Vanderbilt defeated Georgia 108-82. Vanderbilt earned a spot in the NCAA tournament where it lost to #10 Oregon in OT in the first round

Virginia Tech’s partner in the ACC/SEC challenge this upcoming season is Florida. Florida will visit Cassell on Dec. 4. The Gators finished 12th in the SEC and made a strong run through the WBIT, including defeating Texas Tech, before falling 66-52 to Minnesota in the semi-finals. Looking at cross-ACC/SEC-conference matchups last year, Florida lost to Miami 83-73 and Florida State 98-74, UNC 77-57 but defeatedClemson 77-64. In another interesting note Florida lost to JMU 77-72.

To wrap up their non-conference schedule, Virginia Tech will play three home games:  Presbyterian on Dec. 10, ETSU on Dec. 14, and then Radford on Dec. 21. Presbyterian finished 8th in the Big South Conference (behind Radford and Gardner-Webb). In Presbyterian’s only game against a high profile team, it lost 81-33 to Clemson.   ETSU finished 3rd in the 8-team Southern Conference.For comparisons sake, ETSU lost last to NC State by a score of 80-55.  The Hokies will then wrap up 2025 with their final non-conference game against Radford. Virginia Tech defeated Radford last year 73-34 in which the Highlanders hit two threes to start the game before the Hokies went on a 15-0 in the first quarter and then 22 more points in the second quarter to seize control of the game. 

The average NET Ranking from last year for the eleven currently known non-conference opponents is 216. This does not include Vanderbilt (NET 22 ) or Oregon State (NET 120).  As a comparison, last season’s non-conference opponents finished the 2024-25 season with a NET average ranking of 174, bolstered primarily by games against Iowa (NET 24) and Michigan (NET 25), Davidson (NET 89).  Virginia Tech does not have an Iowa or Michigan on its schedule this year, but games against JMU, BYU, Florida, and potentially Vanderbilt represent opportunities to bolster the Hokies’ resume.

Virginia Tech is likely to start ACC conference play in early December. Last year, for example, the Hokies played Duke on December 8 before beginning the full ACC slate in the new year.