Schedule Alert 🚨 Tech adds 3 home-and-home series with SEC foes, including Alabama.Details ⤵️https://t.co/Uxih3OP7aM #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/752LZ0uVux— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) October 31, 2019
Virginia Tech fans have long hoped for the addition of home-and-home series with Southeastern Conference opponents to the Hokies' football schedules. On Thursday, Director of Athletics Whit Babcock announced that Alabama and Ole Miss will each play a home-and-home series with the Hokies. In addition, Babcock also confirmed that the dates for the Wisconsin series have been solidified for 2031 and 2032. Plans are also being finalized to play a home-and-home series with an SEC opponent in 2024 and 2025.
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How is the only one actually happening in the near future the only one they don't even have figured out?
According to the linked press release:
I don't know, but I like it.
Beat Bama
We're playing the entire SEC in 2025?
Are we switching conferences? Or we on loan for a year, sorta like a try before you buy program?
SEC All-Stars
Did you say Mystery?
VIRGINIA TECH FUTURE OPPONENT ADDITIONS/CHANGES
9/26/2020 -- North Alabama
10/1/2022 -- Wofford
9/23/2023 -- at Marshall
8/31/2024 -- at SEC
9/7/2024 -- Marshall
8/30/2025 -- SEC (home)
9/20/2025 -- James Madison
9/6/2031 -- at Old Dominion
9/12/2031 -- Wisconsin
9/4/2032 -- Ole Miss
9/18/2032 -- at Wisconsin
9/2/2034 -- Alabama
9/1/2035 -- at Alabama
9/5/2037 -- at Ole Miss
Inject that JMU demolishing right in to my veins, fuck that school
September 20, 2025 is a date that is now circled on my calendar. We need to beat them so badly that we make them regret ever funding a football program on that day.
I don't even have my 2020 calendar yet.... your calendar game is strong.
Something tells me it's a metaphorical circle on a metaphorical calendar. I'd love for Alum to prove me wrong, however.
The 2020 calendar will be the same as the 2025 calendar. It repeats every 5 years.
So if you have a 2020 calendar, just cross our the zero on the year, and mark the date.
Edit: well, I guess that's wrong
It's not though....
My birthday in 2020 is on a Monday. In 2025 it's on a Sunday.
Leap year will get after ya.
February 29th has entered the chat.
Lol, no. Not even close. First off, 2020 has 366 days, and 2025 has 365 days, so they aren't even the same calendar. Also, non-leap-year calendars repeat on average every 9-10 years, but sometimes it's 6, sometimes it's 11, or occasionally other, less common intervals.
I'll be 50 years old for the @Ole Miss game. Maybe a 50th b-day present for myself. When do tickets go on sale? This is ridiculous! No logical reason for these games to be scheduled so far in advance.
No logical reason...except nobody wants to get stuck without a chair in the game of scheduling musical chairs.
Think Furman and Rhode Island...
Luckily, you no longer need be concerned with ECU, though.
That's not luck. It's God's will.
Somewhere out there, a lost little corny Liberty joke looks upward briefly, as if it's name were called.
Narrarator: It was not called.
Hang 70 fucking points on JMU, remind them what division they play in, and never schedule them again. Fuck dem kids
I'm gonna have to stop you there
All I know is that I'm really excited to go to the Grove. Definitely a CFB bucket list item. Good on Whit for scheduling home-and-home's. I love going to other stadiums and seeing what the college football culture is there. Way more fun that playing at FedEx or MBD.
at Ole Miss and at Bama are 2 bucket list kind of games. Its a shame they're nearly 20 years out
I hope I remember.
I just turned 70, I hope I am alive.......
I'm not holding my breath... at Wisconsin and Michigan were bucket list kind of games too
So was Ohio State, Nebraska, LSU, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Penn State, Bristol...
But hey, the glass is 20% empty...
I guess I should have clarified... I'll get excited when we're a couple years out and the games are still on the schedule. I don't put too much weight into the long term schedule since it seems to change so often
And I'll clarify again. Most of them go off as scheduled or get replaced by better games.
I don't excited about anything that far off either - particularly my impending demise - but unless the FCS apple cart gets upended, the likelihood of these games happening is pretty high.
2020-21 Michigan says hi.
2019-20 Wisconsin says hi.
2022-23 Penn St say hi.
Of all 3 marquee home-and-home matchups, only next fall's Penn St game will occur the current 5 year window. Most get replaced by a steady diet of MTSU's and Liberty's.
I wouldn't get excited until we are 2-2.5 years out and it is difficult to find a replacement opponent if those games get cancelled.
Yeah its like a HS Jr giving a verbal commitment.
Gives me time to save up the funds.
I want to go to the Grove too, but the problem is I'll be 44 by the time we play there in 2037... Not exactly as exciting when I'm 44 as it would be now in my 20's.
Hey-For road/neutral site games, I was 48 for Bama, 49 for Ohio State, 50 for Purdue, 51 for the Notre Dame game (and Clemson and Arkansas)...being old doesn't mean you can't have have fun and excitement and overindulge on alcohol! I can't wait for the trips to ... State College/Happy Valley, Piscataway, Huntington, Clemson, Tucson, Provo, Madison, Tuscaloosa, Oxford.
I made it to all but the Syracuse game in 2016 and I'm gonna try to make all the games next year (even years are the easiest since three of the four trips are Durham, Chapel Hill and Pitt. )
Downvote for still being fairly young when the game at Grove occurs. (j/k, but I'll be on social security when the game happens. From my perspective, you've got a great situation).
You'll be 44?
Oh, the horror. The horror.
Oddly, you'll still figure out how to have fun in your 40s, and your friends will swear you're basically the same person.
In hindsight, I realize I am probably on the younger end of the TKP demographics, and I don't mean to make anyone feel old. I'd say it's more about how I'd really like to go to the Grove NOW as opposed to it being so much worse at 44.
Yeah, for me that can't get here fast enough, particularly as I'm in decent driving distance from that one. That's basically a generation away.
I'm curious who the 2025 SEC opponent will be. Even that one seems a ways off.
Heard SCar is an option. Would also love Tennessee or Georgia.
I'd go to any of those.
No doubt, I would too if circumstances permitted.
I really want it to be a Georgia home and home just so all the VT fans who haven't experienced Athens can do so.
Kinda makes you wonder if pulling the plug on that ECU series was a good idea. $/
This clearly sets up the theory that we are moving to the SEC in 2031.
Only after moving to the B1G first...
2020 Penn State
2023 Rutgers, @Purdue
2024 Rutgers, @Wisconsin
2025 Wisconsin, @Penn State
2026 @Maryland
2027 Maryland
2028 @ Maryland
2029 Maryland
...dual conference...dual payouts.
Quite the long con.
Well played, Whit. Well played.
Stoked for that 2024-2025 series. I would go to that away game just about anywhere it could be in the SEC. It would be a very short trip for me if it was Georgia or South Carolina.
Does anyone here have an inside scoop on who the mystery team is? If I had to guess, I'd say Florida, just based on their AD recently begging for OOC opponents on Twitter. It would be interesting to see the Gators venture out of their own state for an OOC game for the first time in about 3 decades.
SEC Future Schedules
Only a handful of teams are showing 4 OOC games right now. Could even be one of them (if it was worth it to reschedule).
Give me Tennessee. I need a rematch with those assholes.
Florida already has both FSU and Miami on the schedule both years
The rumor is South Carolina. Take that for what it's worth.
South Carolina or Tennessee for 2024-2025. Just looking at SEC future schedules, that's my guess.
Could also be aTm, Arkansas, or others from the West division. All 7 West Division teams have an opening, and none have more than one P5 game scheduled those years.
Just looking at other season schedules real quick and comparing their willingness to schedule multiple P5 teams. South Carolina plays Clemson every year but shows they will schedule others like UNC. Tennessee plays Oklahoma in 2024 but is completely open in 2025. Looks to me like a lot of the teams don't like scheduling multiple P5 teams since they have to play an SEC schedule every year as well.
Finally we schedule home-and-homes with an SEC. I'm really looking forward to visiting Oxford and Tuscaloosa for games. I hope the mystery one is South Carolina or Tennessee. Great job Whit!
I do not put too much stock in these high profile distant games, but I do welcome them.
Now that I think about it, the SEC All-Star team would be a good benchmark test for us before ACC play those years.
I'd take Mississippi State in 2024 and 2025
There are a lot of interesting possibilities.
I would love the series to be against Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Texas A&M, South Carolina, or Miss St. Good locations with a great gameday crowd that would be a fun visit.
I am expecting it to be against someone like Vandy or Kentucky.
Florida is almost certainly off the table, as they have both FSU and Miami scheduled both years.
Both Vanderbilt and Kentucky have a full OOC slate scheduled for 2024. Not saying it's impossible for them to reschedule one of those games, but I don't see it happening.
So, two and a half?
Mississippi State:
Why those allowed us beyond me. I will never go to a game there and I hope Tech bans them if they ever play here and petition a bowl game to ban them. Went to a single softball game where maybe 25 parents had then and I couldn't even have a conversation with my kids sitting in front of me.
It is RIDICULOUSLY loud.
The SEC changed the rule again this year:
Still, if I ever go to one of their games again I'm taking hearing protection.
I've been told by some SEC fans that the SEC fines Miss. St. every game, and Miss. St. just pays the fine.
It really seems to have worked out well for them...
I'll be in my 40s when the Ole Miss/Bama series comes around. Wow.
I'm in my 40s now. Wow...
Wow...so brave. Tell me, were the 80s as awesome as they seem?
Well I was between 5 and 14 in the 80s so I probably didn't get the full experience...
Time flies. You'll be in your 40s before you know it.
As someone who was 15-25 during the 80s and enjoying my time in Blacksburg from '83-'88, YES they were! Especially the old spring block block parties like Stonegate and Bargerfest!(as well as watching bands at 117 South Main). (Plus academically, we were on quarters then not semesters which personally I preferred.)
they were better than they seemed.
If im not dead when it comes time to play @Ole Miss, I most certainly will be after it. Can't wait to take my old ass to the grove.
I wish these games were sooner, but anything close to the Florida Panhandle will be a great road trip.
By then maybe the Saban dynasty will be over and by then the next generation of Fuller brothers will be leading us to natty after natty
Don't hold your breath, Saban will just be hitting his prime in 2035.
Next gen is Fuller Cousins, man. If they time it right, we could at times field an All-Fuller secondary.
I, for one, don't think that a series should be allowed to be scheduled this far in advance, unless it is the continuation of an existing or near-future series.
For example, you shouldn't be able to schedule someone 5 years out. BUT if you have a ten game home-and-home with someone that started in 2016 and goes through 2025, then yeah, the continuation of the series is allowed.
I don't like this, it's barely a commitment.
At the very least, games shouldn't be scheduled so far in advance that the players involved haven't even been born.
Let's at least get them to Kindergarten.
The coaches need games to pitch when they're visiting croots in the delivery room.
Found Lane Kiffin's account
This is silly.
It''s not barely a commitment. The vast majority of game and series happen as agreed to contractually.
Ugh. Any way we can ditch the 4 games vs the losers from Lynchburg? Our team playing them makes me feel dirty.
I'd rather play ECU than Liberty. And the depth of my loathing for the ECU series knows no bounds.
I second the motion. Liberty is just so..........blegh.
In a vacuum, it sort of makes sense. It's an easy FBS win every year in a place that's easily accessible by our fans. If Scott Stadium is Lane Stadium North, Williams Stadium easily becomes Lane Stadium East.
EDIT: I forgot to mentioned the assload of money Liberty is giving us to play there.
At least we're only playing them in Lynchburg once for every two times they're visiting Blacksburg.
Edit: forgot a word
What money? They are just taking smaller payouts to play in Blacksburg.
I'm thinking A&M or Arkansas
Should be aTm on a revolving schedule, but it's going to be USCe.
Hmmm.... wonder if any SEC programs have come out and said they have scheduled a "mystery ACC opponent" for 2024-2025? Then we'd know for sure..... haha.
I'll take GEORGIA BULLDOGS in 2024 and 2025 please.
Best news out of this is that I will be at least 66 years old before there's even an open date that ECU could be scheduled, and that if they're not added to anything displayed on hokiesports, I could be 77 and not have to watch another VT/ECU game. The bad news is that 77 isn't that far away.
You know, I just realized, if we ever lose to ECU in a bowl game, TKP might just have its biggest meltdown ever
Joe be like...
via GIPHY
He who laughs last, laughs best. Bye, bye, ECU.
I mean i don't miss the series at all, but I will never get tired of that graphic. It is cool as hell.
The mystery team is Vandy in 24/25. At the Titans stadium in Nashville in 2024 and then home game in 2025. Little disappointing.
Not that I'm doubting you, but sauce?
... That is rather disappointing though. Especially since one game won't be at their stadium.
@hokiesfb twtittered it
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2019/november/19/football-adds-2024-2...
Eh, a trip to Nashville is easy for a huge piece of the fanbase, and relatively affordable. I'm fine with it.
Wow, someone finding scheduling news disappointing. That didn't take long...
Short of New Orleans, I can't think of more fun place for a road game, road trip.
I mean i'm always down for Nashville but when they announced we had a home and home with an SEC team coming in 2024/2025, I don't know who wouldn't have had Vandy as one of the bottom 2 on the list of ideal matchups.
Still beats the he'll out of rhode Island
Look we can take solace that we can say we beat an SEC team ranked worse than Furman and people count that as an ok win.
In 2025 they play PSU also. You think playing two top P5 teams in one season OOC is going to happen?
Not sure Vandy qualifies as a top P5 team, but your overall sentiment is correct.
We'll have our hands full with Penn State.
With people disappointed it's Vandy wanting a bigger instead. That wasn't happening in same year as PSU.
True that probably was a big factor playing into it.
Sure, why not just schedule Bama, Georgia and hell, LSU or Florida that year?
I was hoping for South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, or just really anyone but the worst team in the conference. Didn't know this was such a sensitive subject for some people.
I'd like to play Tennessee. Mississippi would also have been fun.
Vandy will also be fun, though.
When was the last home and home P5 USCjr has played? (Outside Clemson, which is why I can't name the other time), Tennessee same question.
You can ask that question about a surprisingly large portion of the SEC, especially after they circled the wagons as a whole in SEC scheduling back in the late 90s/early 2000s
Only one i can think of is Tennessee had one with Oklahoma. Both have done mainly neutral site games. Look, I get it. Vandy isn't a terrible move for the schedule and makes sense with PSU on there in 2025, but i don't get why yall can't just let me be a little disappointed?
Sort of along those same lines, when we got the Camping World Bowl vs OKSt, I went to there message boards just doing a temperature check on if they were as pumped about the matchup as I was. It hurt my feelings a little bit that they were disappointed with it. Oh well.
Arkansas is the worst team in the conference. We just get the historically worst team.