How Virginia football's game vs. NC State in Brazil came to be
Virginia and NC State were already exploring moving the previously scheduled non-conference football game in 2026 from Charlottesville to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when the ACC decided last year to expand its league schedule from eight contests to nine for this coming season.
That briefly put the potential Brazil bout on hold, according to Nima Omidvar, the vice president of basketball and events for Athlete Advantage — the company staging the tilt in Rio de Janeiro.
“This game was either going to dissipate, or the ACC would keep it intact and move it to Week 0 and give it their blessing,” Omidvar told The Daily Progress last week.
The conference did exactly that, handing the Hoos and the Wolfpack a stamp of approval and turning what was supposed to be the second game in a two-year non-conference series agreement into an ACC league contest played internationally for the first-ever college football game in Brazil that’ll take place on Aug. 29 at Nilton Santos Stadium.
Of the eight FBS games that Saturday, half involve at least one ACC team — UVa vs. NC State in Rio de Janeiro, North Carolina vs. TCU in Ireland, plus Florida State hosting New Mexico State and Stanford hosting Hawaii. The UVa-NC State game is the only conference contest that day.
Virginia tight end Sage Ennis crosses the goal line for a touchdown against NC State during a game last fall at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. UVa and NC State will meet in Brazil this coming season.
There isn’t a kickoff time yet for UVa-NC State, Omidvar noted, but he said, “We feel confident that we’ll be after another international experience going on in Week 0.” An ESPN channel will televise the game.
And for Athlete Advantage and Brasil Sports Business — a sports event and tourism company in the country also involved in the planning and staging of the game — the goal of bringing college football to Brazil was years in the making.
Omidvar — a former college basketball assistant coach at NC State under Mark Gottfried and at Maryland under Mark Turgeon — said he can remember Rafael Franco, the VP of Brasil Sports Business who also was in charge of an international sports academy, sharing his vision in 2018 with Omidvar about wanting to entice college football teams to travel to Brazil during the spring to play against Brazilian pro clubs similarly to how college basketball teams go on foreign tours in the offseason.
College football programs would never go for that, though.
But as Franco gathered more information on how to bring American college football to the country and the popularity of football increased in Brazil with the NFL staging games in Sao Paulo, and as Omidvar transitioned out of coaching into the sports events business, the two stayed in touch about the prospects of helping lure college football to Brazil. Omidvar said he spent about two years trying to figure out how hosting a game in Brazil would become viable.
When Athlete Advantage hired Omidvar, he pitched the project to his bosses, who were on board and then tasked with finding willing participants.
Omidvar said Athlete Advantage shopped the game around to multiple schools and athletic departments, and eventually found that UVa general manager Tyler Jones and NC State deputy athletic director Todd Stansbury were intrigued. Both Jones and Stansbury had previous experience with international competitions. Jones did so while working at Northwestern when the Wildcats played in Ireland in 2022, and Stansbury, while athletic director at Georgia Tech, when the Yellow Jackets played in Ireland in 2016.
Ironically, both Jones and Stansbury are outgoing from their current posts. Jones took a job at Stanford, and Stansbury is retiring.
“But both were very helpful all the way up to this point to help with some institutional knowledge,” Omidvar said. “And the game as it gets produced, everybody sees it and are like, ‘Wow. That’s a great game,’ especially while they’re sitting at home. But there are bumps in the road, and they’ve helped us with a lot of education on a path for what would make sense for a productive and successful event in an international destination.”
UVa had to give up a home game in order to play in Brazil. Omidvar declined to share the amount of the Cavaliers’ guaranteed payout. UVa’s FOIA office has failed to share a contract or an event participation agreement detailing the payout, even though multiple requests from The Progress have been made.
But sources told The Daily Progress last week that the Hoos’ guarantee is in the millions and will net them more than they would make for a game at Scott Stadium.
The Cavaliers were also searching for certain logistical requirements to sign off on the game, Omidvar said.
“UVa wanted to have a shared experience with their team, their fans and their players’ parents,” he said.
Athlete Advantage could make that happen.
Virginia’s headquarters for its stay in Rio de Janeiro is the Sheraton Grand, and the team’s lodging is being covered by Athlete Advantage, a source said.
Athlete Advantage is also selling travel packages for both UVa fans and NC State fans, and part of the package for UVa fans includes the opportunity to stay at the Sheraton Grand in Rio, as well as be provided secure transportation from and to the airport, as well as from and to the game at Nilton Santos Stadium. The company offers three package levels, and its platinum package includes excursions to Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain and the famed Roxy Dinner Show, with transportation provided for those outings.
Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro will host Virginia's Aug. 29 contest against NC State.
Safety and security were the priority for Athlete Advantage. Omidvar, a Washington, D.C. native, said he’s been to Brazil five times and never would consider the country unsafe, but knows the American perception about Brazil and the crime there.
“As we curated this experience, we’ve wanted fans to know that from the time that they land, we’re with them. We’ve got them,” Omidvar said. “They can be having this experience and never be walking outside of the protective force field that we’ve created. So, from the time the airplane lands, we’ve got a staff member that’ll be there waiting and gets them on our secure buses that gets them to the hotel and from the hotel to different experiences with security on the buses. At the game, buses will be able to come inside the gates, which are inside the stadium security area.”
Once at the stadium, a Brazilian-themed tailgate will be provided to package-holders on a concourse that overlooks the field. Nilton Santos Stadium is home to Botafogo, one of the pro soccer clubs in Brazil’s most competitive league.
Omidvar said Nilton Santos Stadium reminds him architecturally of Lumen Field, where the Seattle Seahawks play.
He said the sight lines, even from the upper level of the 46,931-seat venue, are terrific. When Rio de Janeiro held the 2016 Olympics, Nilton Santos Stadium hosted track & field events. The stadium has also hosted numerous international soccer games.
And for this college football game between UVa and NC State, the stadium is “perfect for this scenario,” Omidvar said.
He said the locals in Brazil are also interested in everything surrounding the UVa-NC State game.
The NFL has already played in Brazil twice, both in Sao Paulo — the Eagles and Packers met there in 2024, and the Chargers and Chiefs played there last September — and the league is due to play for the first time in Rio de Janeiro this coming Sept. 27 when the Ravens and Cowboys meet at Maracana Stadium.
“The appetite for football is pretty profound [in Brazil], and it continues to grow,” Omidvar said when asked how interested folks in Rio de Janeiro are about UVa and NC State making the long journey for this game.
“Then, everything with American culture is fascinating to Brazilians,” he continued. “This is just my observation in talking to everyone, but it’ll also be with the band and the cheerleaders, so [Brazilian fans] will be there to see that and soak in that culture with the tailgate experience because all of that is as important to them as the game.”
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Athlete Advantage VP Nima Omidvar discusses how the Aug. 29 game between UVa and NC State in Brazil came to be.
