Football is king at Virginia Tech and that's not even close to questionable. My question is what would it take for another sport to surpass it?
Basketball is the closest thing, so if Mike Young made it to the final four? A national championship game? A couple of final fours?
For non-revenue sports if our softball lady Hokies won a natty or two, how would that shake up the hierarchy of sports?
Personally I feel like basketball making a national championship game with a couple of sweet 16s mixed in might start to close the gap. I know a non-revenue sport would take much more.
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Bass fishing already has 2 rangs so it is obviously #1
Club sports don't count.
What about intramural? I know of an innertube waterpolo team that should have been pretty high in the rankings
CLUB SPORTS DON'T COUNT PAAAAAWWWL
When did they win the second one?
It would take a generation of students. Or two. I don't know about you all, but my memories from Tech, my real good memories, come from Lane, not Cassell. Hell, I was even there when we had gameday and beat Duke, but Lane will always be #1 in my and, I'm assuming, many other alums', heart. You would need a lot of new Hokies to have a significantly better time watching squeaky shoe shooty ball for about 10-20 years before things change.
I definitely understand that winning a national championship in basketball then a decade of mediocrity wouldn't change anything. I feel that's what happened after Greenberg. He was constantly on the bubble then JJ destroys everything. Buzz brought new excitement and new levels of success. Hopefully CMY can keep it going (hopefully football turns around and it's a win win). But I could see two final fours over a 4ish year period start to change things. It would at least change the expectations of round ball.
Some pretty prominent coaches in Basketball will be retiring in the near future, and its quite possible the tieds will turn to another team in the ACC.
I fully expect the likes of Duke and UNC to pickup fantastic coaches when the time comes, but we could be in a position to take over the conference if we play our cards right.
This is most definitely not my interpretation of how that era unfolded
SG was 16-17 (4-12 ACC) his last year. Ran off every coach and was the entire basketball staff when JW fired him.
I also don't think anything will dethrone football unless we have a decade of sustained basketball successs at a top 25 level or something. However, there is somewhat of a generational shift for some people. As a current student, my favorite memories are mostly in Cassell. Granted, I'm a huge college basketball person so I'm biased.
But the best memories at Lane the past few years are the dramatic win against uva (in a mostly empty stadium, with no friends there), pregame/1st quarter vs Clemson (we obviously lost), pregame/1st quarter vs Notre Dame (got blown out), and goal line stand vs. Pitt in a fairly empty student section.
Compare that to Cassell: seeing us beat Duke twice, beating uva in double OT, storming the court 3 times, etc.
You're not terribly far removed from the first overtime game against GT with David Wilson running back a touchdown, the Miami "these people are losing their minds", and upsetting Ohio State at the Shoe.
Point taken though.
You're merging together two different GT classics. David Wilson wasn't on the roster for that OT game.
VTGM this man is harassing me. /s
Thats kinda where I am. 95 - 2000 Hokie. Great times. Great FB Teams and great memories in Lane. Even a natty game.
But my favorite memory? Getting way too hammered for a 19 year old, walking up to the tippy top of Cassell in the deep corner, last short row to watch Marcus Camby drop 35, 10 and 5 blocks in a massacre on a really good Hokie Team. That team had D Watt, Both Shawn Smith and Goode, and Ace. They had no answer for Camby though.
It isnt your age. Deep down, it wont take much for me to go BBall over FB, especially if CMY keeps up the program exposure like Buzz did. If CMY is more on Social media than Fuente, and CMY is more successful over the coming years, then....
Camby was a man that year. Sad thing is we were never in that game. I do remember that one though...
Well yeah, I think 5 or 6 consecutive years where the basketball team is head and shoulders better than the football team would do the trick. Problem is, we're only 1 year into this potential stretch of time and I don't see our football team having 5 or 6 straight losing seasons. Hell, I'm not even sure they have 2 straight.
I think it could really only be basketball. If you have a football team in a P5 conference you're either known for football or you're known for basketball. And if you're not known for those two, you are essentially known for nothing.
Non P5 teams could be known for other things like ice hockey or lacrosse.
Oregon state is a baseball school
Interesting...I did not know that. /s
I think if you polled the average college sports fan, Oregon would be identified as a football school, mainly because football coverage >>>>>> baseball coverage at the P5 level.
Psst, he meant the ugly one of these two. Not the ugly one...
Well, yeah. Oregon would be a football school.
Oregon State, on the other hand. Yeah, they're a baseball school
Reading - it'll get after ya!
I am not sure that the average fan if given the option of "not known for anything" in a poll question, would vote baseball for Oregon State either.
That's actually the problem, once you get beyond football and basketball, only the fans of those collegiate sports and the fans of the schools know that stuff.
I mean the Beavs are pretty terrible at both football and basketball, and have a couple recent College World Series titles. So, if they're known for anything (outside of being the Beavers, of course), its probably for that.
I would have said that they're not. I have no idea who the baseball powerhouses are.
There is football, and basketball, and there are some wrestling schools. There are a handful of other sports where I could name 1-2 teams that take it seriously. And that's as far as my collegiate athletics consciousness goes.
That's just your opinion, but the college World Series and everything that surrounds Omaha is a solid #3. Super important for a lot of PAC, Big12, and SEC schools plus like Coastal Carolina and cal state Fullerton
I still wanna see them play South Carolina in football. The announcers would be tripping over themselves trying to not say the wrong things.
Oregon is a track school
Virginia Tech's track program is certainly on the rise but Oregon is on a different level. They easily hired away Tech's most prominent track coach last year.
Would take a lot of winning in basketball, and a lot of losing in football.
Winning will help in either of those sports. Fan interest has grown in both sports over the years, but winning is what puts butts in seats, and I suspect it helps greatly with donations, Hokie Club membership, TV sports viewership, etc.
Edit: but the reality is: Not gonna happen, and the good news is that I think we see improvements in both sports, even if more methodical and slower than we'd like.
When they shut down or so dramatically change football to something not recognizable to us today. I believe that's going to happen within my lifetime.
When I was a little kid I would watch hits and could watch in slo-mo broken bones, blown ligaments, etc., without any problem. Then I grew up a little bit and blew out my own knees a few times, and I can't watch replays of those kinds of plays without looking away and hiding my eyes. I could still enjoy and watch people getting blown up and those kinds of hits.
Then I got a little bit older still, and learned some more about CTE, including some lengthy interactions with somebody who definitely had CTE from playing HS, College, and NFL in the 80's, and now I cringe and look away everytime gets blown up.
I played soccer as a little kid and like it. I'll watch some EPL on saturday and sunday mornings before real football kicks off, but when football goes away or they change it to suck, I'll have to shut off the TV in the fall and go outside more.
nonsense, headbrick will never decline
This. No other sport can come close, as much as VCU and Wichita State might like to claim otherwise. Other teams may win or even dominate, but they will never match the spectacle and violence of football. Plus tailgating six Saturdays a fall is an epic party. Tailgating four Tuesdays in the Winter is the sign that you might be trying just a little too hard to have "fun". Football is dethroned when enough parents decide that their kid needs to play something else, and the talent pool dries up.
Yeah, I don't think football is going to survive another generation or two, at least in the popularity and in a recognizable form it is now. It's purely anecdotal, but I'm seeing less and less interest in it from younger people. Add that in with how dangerous we're finding it is we're going to see less and less kids play it.
I doubt anything besides High School and above will survive. If I'm a parent and my kid has no shot at the NFL or good college scholarship (maybe not even then) or the tuition bubble collapses there's no way I'm letting them play football. Doubly so if the coach is just the math teacher.
It'll be a slow decline, for sure. But with less younger people watching and playing because of health reasons it'll wane and will be overtaken.
I don't know. We're seeing a resurgence of flag football, and I know some NFL teams have been sponsoring FF leagues. I know the Falcons have sponsored a FF league in every county in Georgia. Not only that, it is/can be coed as well. My daughter wants to play, but I think only because she knows I love football.
From my experience, youth football is safer than baseball, soccer, and basketball (especially basketball played in elementary school concrete floor gyms). My kid is 10 now and the football hits are starting to be more concerning but the kids that have played since pee wee have much better body control than those that are newcomers.
You would have to have prolonged, continued success in Basketball at the same time as prolonged decline in football for the tables to change. I don't see either of those happening ever at the same time.
My senior year we went 2-8-1. No idea if we even had a basketball team that year...
10-18 that year, but only a few seasons away from an NIT championship...
But agreed. I know the football record. Had to look up the bball record.
That was my freshman year. I showed up that fall in Blacksburg without even realizing we had a football team (not literally, but I couldn't have cared less).
I hate to say it, but a few non-competitive seasons in a row in football and we could be sliding back to the dark ages. I haven't been to Lane Stadium in a few years, but from a distance I get the feeling there's a lot less interest in VT football that there was from, say, 1995-2010. But I could be wrong about that.
That's not exclusive to Lane.
Congrats, OP - we have a winner:
Most Offseason Thread of The Offseason
It's early yet to be declaring a winner, but Offseason Is Here.
Live for today, key.
I mean, we're definitely in the thick of it...
Slow day at work. Last chance U can't get here fast enough
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article23...
Just go over to Lesabre and ask UVA!!!! HA!
Football won't be the end all be all forever. Its at its popularity peak right now, but these things ebb and flow and I wouldn't be surprised if over the next 20 years, we start to see a decline.
That said, in the immediate future? A National Championship in basketball would take a lot of attention off football.
Football has already peaked . It is in decline the younger generations are not into football that much . Attendance is down pretty much across the board at most colleges bowls ect. The money is still flowing as they squeeze revenues out of TV but the peak is behind see the layofffs ESPN ect. Prices to high and the thrill factor with
all the breaks during the game not there. More and more people will choose to stay home and watch the game . Also big factor on the way is liability with some insurance companies pulling out this will cause High Schools to have to really way it out down the road if they can afford it . I think you will start to see a shrinking pool of players and kids and their parents opt not to allow them to participate .
I tend to agree here. I will always love VT football and think of VT as a football school, but if I'm being completely honest with myself: I don't know that I love the football gameday experience as much as I used to. TV has just made it way too convenient to invite friends and family to the house and have your own private party as you watch the entire day's slate of games. I also think that tailgating culture is both great and a detriment to the game at the same time. For many people, the tailgate seems to surpass the game. People getting blackout drunk and either not making it in or bouncing after the 1st quarter to keep their buzz going hurts the crowd atmosphere. Being in mobs of people and getting jostled around/having to wait in long lines for everything gets harder and harder for me. Plus with each year, I get a little more irritated dealing with the traffic heading up at down 81 before and after games. I totally understand where people are coming from when they say it is cheaper and less hassle to stay at home and watch vs. the day-long effort involved in traveling, tailgating, and dealing with the crowds.
Therein lies some of the beauty of basketball: shorter but faster paced gameplay, smaller but still intense crowds, less emphasis on an all day tailgate and more go grab some food and a few drinks before/after the game and leave at a reasonable time.
BREAKING: Millenials have killed football too
We have a hell of a wrestling program
Top ten and yet probably just as far away from a national championship as either football or basketball. Wrestling is outright dominated by only a few schools in a way that far exceeds either revenue sport.
The teams that are winning titles has changed periodically though. If they keep improving incrementally there's no reason the Hokies can't be in the mix when the next shake up happens. Penn State was not a historically dominant team until recently. Ohio State snuck a title in back in 2015. Minnesota won a couple back in the mid 2000s. Oklahoma State is the most historically dominant program and they haven't won a title since 2006.
Until any sport comes close in revenue it's never going to happen.
Football is king period
I would prefer sweet sixteens to Military Bowls any day of the week. If the basketball program were to be able to become successful consistently, it wouldn't take long to create a large following
I think you'd need a bigger bowl to equal a sweet sixteen appearance, but...
Probably Bran the broken manipulating things off camera
When it's dethroned nationally. And then its going to take time.
True. Football isn't going to go gently into the good night.
The only thing I could see dethroning football in the near future would be a 3+ year NCAA ban on the program at VT, which I don't see happening. Not sure what level of cheating you would have to be doing these days to get that, but with the NCAA who could know?
For us, probably accidentally buying a burrito with a coaches card.
ISWYDT. Leg.
Anyone have thoughts on the potential future rise in soccer as a major collegiate sport or specifically the VT soccer programs?
Outside of basketball and football, a lot of programs are super coach dependent. They will be good/mediocre/bad up until they get a new coach. Some schools go out of their way to ensure that they provide the best facilities for these smaller sports and spend the most on coaching (I'm thinking Standford with waterpolo for example).
I will bet you that the overall stock of all VT sports will rise due to Whit Babcock. Don't know if you'll see a powerhouse dynasty ever emerge, but I think Whit is distinctly aware of the lack of national championships in the hardware rack.
My best bet would be wrestling as our first consistent top 10 program.
Until soccer adapts a year round, not semester based, schedule it will be inferior. The best players will skip college and join develipmental academies like they do now. Kids like Jordan Morris, that play in college and make the national team, are total anomalies in the system sadly.
College soccer won't take over. It's a nice idea, and a great vehicle for the dream of parents for their students to get an education, but the programs don't, and wont in the future, have the top talent in the US or world. More and more kids will follow the Pulisic plan and join clubs. Top tier talent in soccer does not belong in College programs, especially how the seasons and trainings are structured. Add to that the building of the US system, the MLS structure, impact of American players that have opened doors overseas, and want to showcase and earn at an earlier age, collegiate soccer may be sliding. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.