http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/13154574/college-football-golden-nug...
Golden Nugget has released early lines for 166 games this season, including for four VT games. Now this is only one sports book, but they're the earliest lines out there (I believe). I've included both the opening lines and what the lines are now if they've changed. They really seem to like GT out of the coastal and Clemson is favored in every game.
For VT:
+16 vs. OSU
-9 vs. Pitt
+6 at Miami (Now +4)
+9.5 at GT (Now +7.5)
-4 at UVA
Other ACC games of note:
Coastal:
GT +2.5 at Notre Dame (Now +5.5)
GT +3 at Clemson
GT -14 vs. Pitt
GT vs. FSU- push
GT -6 at Miami (Now -5)
GT +1 vs. Georgia
UVA +10 vs. GT
UVA +6.5 at Miami (Now +7.5)
UVA +6 at Pitt
UVA +9 vs. Boise State
UVA +9 vs. Notre Dame
UVA +17 at UCLA
Pitt +3 vs. Notre Dame
UNC +6 at NC State (Now +1.5)
Miami +14.5 at FSU (Now +13)
Miami vs. Nebraska- push
Miami +2 at Cincinnati
Atlantic
Louisville -2.5 at Kentucky
Louisville +12 at FSU
Louisville +3 vs. Clemson
Louisville +11.5 vs. Auburn
Clemson -3.5 vs. Notre Dame
Clemson -4.5 at Miami (Now -3.5)
Clemson -2 vs. FSU
Clemson -3 vs. USCe
FSU -4 at Florida (Now -4.5)
Syracuse +20 vs. LSU
I can include some important national games as well if you guys want.
Comments
Take VT giving or taking the points in all of those except Pitt. That one's about right...maybe even a bit too high for VT.
Did I read that right, UVa plays Boise, Notre Dame and UCLA? I wouldn't mind that line up for us. We could win, they won't.
One of these years coming up we play both Michigan and Penn State. I'm looking forward to that.
I believe one of the upcoming years in the not too distant future we play Michigan, ND and WVU which could be good or bad. But a pretty good OOC slate at least from the name perspective.
I think either the year you are think of or the year I am thinking of, we play FSU as well.
2020: Penn State, @ Michigan, Liberty, ECU with @ Louisville as our Atlantic crossover
2021: Richmond, Michigan, @ WVU, ND, with Syracuse as our Atlantic crossover
Our next two games with FSU are there in 2018 (to go along with W&M, ECU, @ODU, and Notre Dame) and here in 2023 (with ODU, Purdue, @Rutgers, and @ECU)
http://www.hokiesports.com/football/schedule/future/
If only 2021 was our GT/Miami/UVA year at home, because that would be the perfect set of season tickets.
I would never want that line up. Even if you were to win all three, you'd take a beating physically.
I would only want those three if the fourth was Alabama.
I'm here to get entertained. I would rather lose to Bama than beat ECU.
Give me the 4 best games you can find. Let the gods sort them out.
I wonder how many of the chest-thumping "play the 4 toughest OOC games possible" advocates are also the first to line up with pitch forks when VT goes 4-8?
Would you rather be 4-8 or 6-6 playing cupcakes? If we're 4-8 then changes need made that might now get made at 6-6
I'd rather play a schedule that's similar to the competition...not one exponentially more difficult than everyone else's. It was ridiculously stupid scheduling on UVa's part that will likely result in their program moving even further backward.
I believe Florida State was the only power 5 school that played as many as three non-conf power 5 games last year. Most play one; some play two; a few play none. As college football scheduling currently exists, playing three top level power 5 schools plus Boise St on top of 8 conference games would be football suicide.
In theory, forcing power 5 schools to play, say, only one non-power 5 team per year sounds like a great idea, but I think we'd see a significant increase in injuries to the 18-22 yr olds actually playing the games that "entertain" us.
Your argument is inconsistent. You say below you don't have a problem playing OSU but you then say there is a greater injury risk in games that are "entertaining." Which is it? Are you worried about injuries or not?
Besides, that's a bogus argument anyway. Lee Suggs blew his knee out against UCONN. Shai Mckenzie blew his out against WMU, not OSU.
And why play a schedule similar to our competition? Maybe we set the trends instead of follow them? Or follow UVA's lead, they certainly looked like competition last November.
Maybe you should read it again. He is saying if you play all your out of conference games against high level competition then you have a much higher chance of injuries.
Has anyone presented any evidence (data) that injuries are more likely against good teams? I've never seen it.
I would think that the main reason for any decreased chance of injury would be the amount of time that starting players would presumably be playing against a good P5 team compared to directional Michigan. This isn't always the case, (see 2012 vs. Marshall, every game ever vs. ECU), but in general a game against a mid-major or FCS team will see more use of 2nd and 3rd string players and starters are more likely to miss long chunks of playing time closer to the end of the game.
I think that is part of it. The other part of it is that our athletes are at a higher level than theirs when we play lower tier teams which seems to help keep our guys healthy. Games against high level competition tend to be more physical games which leads to and increase in injuries.
Do you have any data to support the claim that "games against high level competition increase injuries"?
I understand why we might think that is the case. But I haven't seen any evidence. Maybe we should ask Andy Bitter. He seems to have a lot of time on his hands.
Regarding the other point, yes, of course if your starters are off the field much of the game you run a much lower risk of starters getting injured. But how interesting can a game be if our starters are off the field for much of the game?
Its empirical evidence. Pay attention to the number of injuries we have against Furman and against Ohio State and you will notice a difference.
I'm not sure if there would be a way to get the data for one side or the other. In addition to bad luck, injuries can also be the result of cumulative wear and tear. An injury that occurs against a cupcake could be the result of playing 2 or 3 really tough teams immediately prior.
Also (off on a bit of a digression) injuries can occur for different reasons against different opponents. A player might be more likely to get hurt against a cupcake due to carelessness and/or not using good technique, but against a strong team be more likely to get injured due to the level of competition.
I think I could take offense to that tone if I was a less confident man. I do, however, own a pitch fork. And a silage fork.
Would you have rather played MTSU last year or OSU?
Asked another way: would you have rather played (and beat) OSU and played (and lost to) Bama in 2015 and never had the honor of winning the prestigious Navy Bowl?
You're missing the point. I don't have an issue with playing OSU. But as it is, VT had one of the tougher non-conf schedules in the country last year with ECU, W&M, and directional Michigan on the schedule.
When virtually no one else is scheduling three (let alone, as someone suggested, four) power-5 non-conf games, it's not advantageous in any way right now to want to play that kind of schedule unless that's the norm and it's not.
Now I do believe that we are going to see playing 10 reg season power-5 games become the norm among teams that want to compete for a playoff spot. You can see that VT anticipates that as well by looking at future scheduling. But to play 14 and have the the 4 non-conf games be all top 25 programs? No.
yeah, I guess we have different points. I see a regular season game with an OSU type of opponent as equal to a bowl game. It's exciting, it's interesting. I want more of it. Last winter, I took the kids out for pizza during the bowl game. Watched it later. It wasn't that interesting. I planned my day around seeing the OSU game.
So if an OSU level game truly is better than a bowl game (playing them at home! beating them in the shoe!), then why not schedule as many of those games as you can? Maybe you win some, maybe you lose some. But you're not playing Furman. Or Ferrum. Whichever one we play.
I don't care what everyone else is doing. I don't care if it keeps us out of the top 25. Win your ACC games and you get another chance at an interesting matchup. Don't win your ACC games, you miss out on a bowl game against Rutgers. You don't need a Rutgers game in a 1/10th full stadium on a Tuesday night in December when you could schedule a game in Autzen Stadium on a Saturday night in September. I want to play as many interesting games as we can. Right now, we are committed to play 8 ACC games, of which about 5 are interesting. I want the other 4 to be great games, not one great game and 3 games to pad your record so you don't lose a meaningless bowl streak. Or, worse, you lose to ECU or JMU.....
My goal is to be entertained. Your goal is to be validated by the top 25 or by national perception or something.
Well the problem is, if we actually field a really good team one year and we have this kind of schedule, we're basically robbing ourselves of a shot at the national title. If you have an OC schedule like Alabama, Auburn, OSU, and Oregon every year, it's kind of hard to get into the national title game unless you get lucky and avoid two losses. If Ohio State had a similar OC schedule, I doubt that they would've made it into the playoffs this year.
My goal is to be entertained and at the same time hopefully see Virginia Tech win a national championship. Your goal is only to be entertained, regardless of any consequences.
You lose all credibility as soon as you let everyone know that the match up is more important to you than the fact that we are playing.
Not that I want to be that guy, but of the teams we've played out of that lineup, we're 0-2.
Be interested to see their line on the Clemson GT game. They have FSU GT as a push and Clemson only favored by 2 against FSU.
It's up there as one of the GT games- Clemson's favored by three...
I think it's pretty odd that we are bigger underdogs against anOSU than favorite against LOLUVA.
It's not all that odd. VT tends to play to the level of the opponent. There are no "gimme" games.
38-0 bro
...meanwhile, last year
24-20 bro
WHAT?! We aren't 56 point underdogs to Ohio State? Take anOSU they are going to beat us by 85 points! /s
If I was a gambling man I would take the * action any day. We may not win but no way we lose by 16 at home in the season opener...
Don't tell that to the majority of 11W. They are pretty convinced that they will be playing at post season form and roll us. There are a few that keep challenging that though. They all seem pretty convinced that their D is going to shut us down which I don't see. Loeffler has a whole off-season to scheme which is probably his biggest strength. I still think a 3TE hurry up package is going to be used and create mis-matches and confusion.
My favorite is when they say things like, "play that bear defense again. I dare you." Yeah, cause that front was the ONLY reason you guys couldn't move the ball all night. Got it.
Never mind that Indiana stymied Ohio State for 3 quarters with a bear front out of their base 3-4, until the skill level of Indiana's linebackers/safeties and a couple of fortuitous no-calls led to the game breaking open late.
There seems to be an odd notion among them that only top 10 teams possess talent or skill. Many OSU fans still think of VT as a program with little in the way of talent but with good/great coaches. Not all, but many. Combine that with a great end of the year last year and you get the confidence you're seeing.
Actually, if you look at the stats it was a pretty even game offensively. Your D did its job, but until that last interception we were in the game. Given our player's development over the season I'm pretty confident you'll find it much harder this game than last; just as you guys will be a much better team than your final record suggests. You are correct in asserting the front will not be the the only challenge our O will face. The matchup between or WR and your CB's will be fun to watch; and if Miller is healthy I think your line will have a lot harder time against him than you did against JT starting his second game. With Miller / Elliot we will have 2 legitimate running threats for your D to deal with, plus a passing threat as well; things we really didn't have last year when we played, at least not at the level it should be come Labor Day. Our O vs your D will be an interesting matchup.
You aren't giving your own offensive weapons enough credit from last year's game. The biggest change will be the o line, second biggest will be quarterback play, then maybe running back or wide receivers.
Miller is who I want to see at QB. As an unbiased observer, Barrett is the best QB of the three. I've heard plenty of excuses about Barrett being new for our game, but here are his stats for the preceding game and next three games:
80%, 226, 2 TD 1 INT
76.7%, 312, 6 TD 1 INT
72.2%, 330, 4 TD, 0 INT
78.3%, 267, 4TD, 0INT
Ours:
31%, 219, 1 TD, 3 INT
Miller is more dangerous for us than Miller, but I really don't want to see Miller at H-back. I don't fear Braxton's arm at all, and we'll have to find a way to stop the run no matter who is back there.
I don't see where the optimism for Miami is coming from. Kayaa looked good last year, sure, but that team was built around the offensive line and they lost 4 starters (may be off on the number, but something close to that). Not to mention Duke Johnson leaving. I don't see how they improve from last year, and that was only a 6 win team.
I'd be shocked if they could beat us, push Nebraska, and keep it close with Clemson.
My biggest cheer of the NFL draft was hearing his name get called. Not going to miss playing against that guy. He should do well.
Put me down for a bajillion dollars on VT +7.5 at GT :) and another bajillion on Pitt -9 at VT :(
Nono, it's ok, we aren't playing at Heinz Field. We'll be fine.
I thought I remember seeing the stat before one of the games, but does anyone recall VT's record in games played in NFL stadiums? I know our record in the DC House of Horrors that shall not be named is terrible, but is it all stadiums? At Pitt has been bad, our BCS games in Miami and Nawlins have only led to one W. We have an NFL stadium curse!
Had to look it up. Last ten seasons, games in NFL stadiums: 8-15
Keeping us away from an 0-fer -- the U, ACC champs, Tennessee in the CFA bowl, and Cincy in the Orange Bowl.
If we just look at regular season (not even ACC Champ), we lose a lot of those wins.
I forgot about Miami being in an NFL stadium. I thought maybe Rutgers bowl game was, but that was at some Disney field or something. Still barely above .500
I could've sworn we beat Michigan on January 3, 2012 and Cincinnati in 2009.
I would take every single LOLuva opponent with those betting lines!
Welp, I'll be loading up my Bovada account for that Ohio State line.