MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Shane Lyons, in conjunction with the Big 12 Conference, has announced the 2019 football schedule.

Six home dates, two Power 5 nonconference games and five Big 12 Conference road dates comprise the upcoming schedule.

The season is spread over 15 weeks with open dates on Sept. 28 and Oct. 26. It is the first schedule with two open weeks since 2016. On future schedules, there will be one open week each season from 2020-2023 with two open dates in 2024.

Two weekday dates featured on next year’s schedule include a Thursday night contest at Baylor on Oct. 31 and the day after Thanksgiving game at TCU on Friday, Nov. 29.

“I think it’s a fair and balanced schedule with alternating home and away dates for most of the season,” Lyons said. “We have two home games in September, two in early October and two more in November, which will be appealing to our fans. Our schedule is the only one in the conference to have 11 Power Five opponents, also making it very challenging.”

The Mountaineers open their season against perennial FCS power James Madison on Aug. 31. WVU will finish its contract with SEC opponent Missouri on Sept. 7 in Columbia, before returning home to face ACC opponent NC State on Sept. 14 to finish the nonconference portion of the schedule.

West Virginia’s Big 12 Conference home dates are Texas (Oct. 5), Iowa State (Oct. 12), Texas Tech (Nov. 9) and Oklahoma State (Nov. 23).

Road conference games are Kansas (Sept. 21), Oklahoma (Oct. 19), Baylor (Thursday, Oct. 31), Kansas State (Nov. 16) and TCU (Friday, Nov. 29).

“Having 11 Power 5 games is exciting for our program, but more importantly for our fans,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “I am proud of how we have scheduled and am hopeful the rest of the Power 5 schools will follow our lead.”

The top two finishers in the regular season standings will compete for the conference title in the Big 12 Football Championship Game, which is scheduled in 2019 for Saturday, December 7. The championship game will be played in Arlington, Texas at AT&T Stadium through 2021.

All dates are subject to change. Television selections for the first three weeks of the season and special dates are due to the Conference by June 1, 2019.

Click here for the 2019 WVU Football Schedule