Notably, Virginia Tech is one of the teams with a 9 game ACC schedule, so we will definitely be looking to drop an OOC game.
Twelve teams will play nine ACC games, while five will play eight ACC games due to contractual obligations and scheduling balance
Virginia Tech
Home: Georgia Tech, Pitt, Stanford, Virginia
Away: Boston College, California, Clemson, Miami, SMU
This was going to have to change anyway, but still a funny quote from the ACC's announcement based on how this year went.
The ACC Tiebreaker Policy will be updated and announced ahead of the 2026 season.
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Can't wait to hear what convoluted mess they come up with for 12 teams playing 9 and 5 teams laying 8. Nothing could go wrong there.
I can't wait to see how Miami gets left out this time
how do you compare 7-1 and 8-! records
At least .88888889 is higher than .875?
Coastal Chaos will strike again! I bet it will be something like 3 teams at 6-3, one team at 5-3 and one team at 6-2. This years tiebreaker will be nothing compared to next year.
Technically, the tiebreakers and rules have always said "winning percentage". That's the verbiage they leaned heavily on in 2020 when games were getting cancelled left and right.
But it's still stupid.
I just thought of the simplest, yet probably stupidest solution here.
One game doesn't count. Just like uva/NC State this year, and like the same matchup would have been next year.
I mean, we all know that the ACC would find the most ridiculous situation where all of the possible ties would be between teams who played "non-conference conference games".
How do we STILL have to travel to Boston AND Miami (and now California, but that's an annual trip now) in the same year?
It's absolutely ridiculous and I've been saying it since they made us and BC "rivals" when they let them in.
Don't forget the trip to Texas!
Gonna be racking up some frequent flyer miles
Utterly insane road schedule
At least we don't have a home game in Brasil.
Will UVA's loss to NC State count this year?
I'd much rather do that. At least you get to go somewhere cool, unlike Fort Worth or whateverp
For a home game? I would be super upset if VT moved a home game to another country. One of the points of Babcock's presentation was how much the football team effects the local economy. Losing a home game impacts more than just the fans.
If we had 5 ACC games and 3 OOC game since could see moving one but thats moat likely a very weak OOC schedule if we have 3 teams willing to come to VT In a single year.
I recognize the impact to local businesses. I don't have a good answer.
My wife and all her sisters/friends are GT grads. My FIL and BIL are both Naval Academy grads - both teams have had a combined 4 or 5 international games in the last decade. Each one they've made a vacation out of - the entire fanbase goes, and it's been an absolute blast. We had (literally) two dozen friends who made the trip to Ireland for the FSU/GT game last year. If we had a game in Ireland or Brazil or something, and had over a year's heads up, my Hokie friends/old roommates from East Coast, West Coast, and abroad would probably all make the trip and make a vacation out of it. It would be a blast.
The there's also the fact that Blacksburg is really hard to get to. I live 20 minutes north of Hartsfield Jackson, so it often is literally easier for me to fly cross country than drive across 3+ states. Then it's an arm and a leg to get lodging remotely close to downtown/Lane. You can stay further away, but Ubers are tough to get.
Finally, international games are typically scheduled years in advance. Home games are released in February. When I'm coordinating with friends and family who live all over the country, years of time makes it easier to plan than 7-8 months.
All I can think of is "I'm Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens" and "Atlanta is in the eastern time zone."
"Welcome aboard the Plane Train. Please hold on. This train is departing. The next stop is Concourse B. B as in Burgers and Beverages."
edit: also this classic
I'd be more inclined to do this for an NFL game. My family went to Dublin for the Steelers game this year and everyone had a blast. IMO much of what makes college football fun is the unique traditions and special atmospheres, etc. Taking away a home game to play in a converted soccer stadium in front of a mixed crowd seems like a net loss.
However we play in the ACC where 50% of our games are in front of empty 40k person stadiums with teams we have no regional ties or rivalries with. So I guess it isn't that different. Would depend on what game got moved; Miami/VT big loss. VT/BC probably an improvement.
Missing the opportunity to host a game at lane, against any opponent, in favor of any other venue 👎
Missing the opportunity to play a game at BC, Pitt, or Syracuse in favor of any other venue 👍
Missing the opportunity to play on the road against any other ACC opponent on the road in favor of another venue 👎
Missing an opportunity to play any non-conference game on the road in favor of another venue 🤷🏻♂️
my thoughts exactly.
The only other consideration for me on crappier away games is difficulty to get there. Pitt is a meh away game but easy enough to get to (from Nova) that I could reasonably do it if I was motivated (i.e. i personally have a free weekend and we don't suck). Compared to SMU or Cuse that there's no world I would ever travel to.
went to the Pitt game in 2016(the year I made every game (including the ACC championship game and the bowl game-except @Syracuse which I'm glad I missed).
Cons-PITA to get from our hotel south of downtown cause of the bridges and construction going on- got lost on 'wrong part of town' and had to figure out how to get where we needed to ; minimal atmosphere in (then Heinz) stadium
Pros-ticket cost $5 on Stubhub (plus $15 'service charge, ugh); pretty much could have entire rows of seats to yourself due to crowd of about 15k; the few hundred Hokie fans were louder than the 14,000 Pitt fans(though likely not as loud as Narduzzi's rants saying our DBs committing PI every play; best of all we won that day in that house of horrors; n'only' about a 5-6 hr drive from Richmond
I went to that '16 game too. That was a great game to go to. Primetime W, Hokies offense was great, and both teams had a lot of good players.
I also went to the 2018 game where I froze my ass off and watched Pitt run for a million yards and CornFu kept trotting out QP thinking it was some kind of exotic package that Pitt couldn't figure out.
The trend I've noticed is that it's more fun to go to games when the team is good.
Yea, I'm not an NFL fan, and NFL just doesn't bring my friends together like college ball does.
I agree re: traditions, but I can't convince my friends to all travel to Lane to watch 6 win VT team play a 3 win BC team. Taking 5 days in Ireland, one of which is to watch Hokies, is much more appealing to us.
Agree, I wouldn't want the Miami game there.
Totally get that. It's been a few years since I've even kicked the tires on a Blacksburg game weekend trip myself. If VT announced a game somewhere fun, it would at least warrant a group chat to gauge interest I'd think
Rio is great, went there for a wedding last December. The flight is expensive, but everything is so cheap there. The food is great, beaches gorgeous, and site seeing is spectacular. I traveled to a resort town Buzios via Uber for about $80 (over 2-hr drive) and all Ubers within Rio were between $1 and $10 (the airport trip to Copacabana was the moat expensive for distance). I ended up buying all my Xmas gifts and a new wardrobe because it was 50% cheaper there.
Rio and Brazil in general does have several negatives -- It is very similar to Mexico in the way the government runs and the disparity between the poor and the rich. So, stay away from favellas, drug transactions, etc. and you have to consistently ignore the dudes on the beach trying to scam and hassel you.
I'll also note that having Brasileiro friends helped a lot to navigate through the city and travel to Buzios. Most of the working class do not know English, but if you stick to tourist hotels, restaurants, etc, there are plenty of English speakers.
Rio's central control system by IBM is amazing to see in action. Went there as part of my MBA program. They have a warroom that controls all services across the city, including sanitation trucks, construction vehicles, emergency and police resources as well as locations of favellas emergency responders. They are able to reroute traffic in the city so effectively. Got to watch them in action before during and after a major soccer match downtown.
Their ability to watch/anticipate weather and its effects for mudslides and other events was interesting to see in action. The National Guard that are assigned to the city for emergency response have set evacuation orders that have all residents in their sectors with disabilities or other mobility issues identified and they routinely do drills on assisting evacuations.
It was impressive to see how tied together everything was and how quickly they could effect change.
I get that it is easier to plan a trip with more time in advance, but I guess I just look at vacations a little differently. If I'm going on a vacation to a new place I don't want to do something I can do at home. I would much rather go watch a game of whatever sport is local to the vacation spot.
For the hard to get to Blacksburg part, I get that but it is getting easier to get there IMO. Amtrak to Christiansburg on the NE Connector line should be starting in '27. There are currently 2 trains a day to Roanoke, with the SmartWay bus to Blacksburg(I think the bus waits on the last train of the day before leaving for Blacksburg), you could get there without needing a vehicle from the NE. Blacksburg Buses are free now. I'm just not sure if there will be a commuter between the two stations. I haven't been able to find anything about how the routes will be done or if there will be a way to get a commuter between the two stations other than having Roanoke station be a through station instead of being an end station now and calling that a commuter.
Roanoke-Blacksburg airport just added a flight to Dallas. They are also starting the long process of trying to get the runway extended over 581 to comply with FAA regulations for larger planes. I-81 is being widened past Roanoke to the North. Roanoke area is also currently adding a couple more hotels, with a couple more planned.
VT football home games are a large help to the local and regional economies in the fall. I just see something like moving a home game to another country as more helpful to the ACC than it is to VT and the local region. Honestly I don't see the need for VT to help the ACC anymore than it does as the ACC, IMO, hasn't done enough to help VT.
81 between Roanoke and Blacksburg is also being widened to three lanes just going to take another 15 years...
Let me rephrase it this way:
I understand the importance of home games to the local economy. I'm just speaking as a Virginia Tech fan (who lives in Atlanta).
I'm really tired of the ACC treating us like the red headed step child. I hate this league so gd much.
JMFF has to tough row to hoe. 5 road games. 4 of them across the country (Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, California). 1 against Clemson.
We'll likely go 5-4 or 6-3 and get overlooked for the acccg by a 6-2 team with only 8 conference games. Complete and utter bullshit. Fuck this league.
By the way, just looking at schedules, I predict Miami and GT in the Acccg
Sorry, that is not allowed by league rules
No, it's completely allowed by league rules, it's just always prevented by Miami's inevitable bed shitting around Halloween.
In fact it's encouraged by league rules. The ACC has been trying to get Miami into the acccg for decades. It's hilarious that they haven't managed yet
Miami has made it to the game -- remember, we had that stretch where the entire Coastal division (plus Notre Dame) did a round robin visit to the ACCCG and lose. They do hold the record for fewest points scored in an ACCCG (3).
And technically, the VT @ Miami game in 2004 was a de facto conference championship. We won the conference with the outright best record, but if Miami had won, it would have been a three way tie where they had beaten the other two teams.
Fair enough. I meant they haven't managed to win the conference despite the conferences best efforts to make it easy for them to do so
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts Miami would have an ACC championship.
UL, SMU, and Clemson should really like their schedule too. I think it was be harder to make the ACCCg with 8 games, so I would suggest that Miami, UL and SMU have the best shot based on schedule.
But honestly, no idea how any of these rosters will look next year. GT is losing a lot, including their entire offernsive coaching staff, QB, RB, etc., but their HS recruiting has been better the last few years. Who knows.
Winning some games will solve a lot of this...
What prevented everyone from being forced into a 9 game schedule this year. I know FSU, GT, and Clemson have SEC rivalries that make their schedules a little less fluid, but WTF is the holdup with BC and UNC? It's ridiculous to get 70% of the way there and just say "screw it, good enough".
Tobacco road.
From a quick review it looks like BC and UNC were the only ones I found that were playing 2 OOC road games next year. That likely played a factor.
FSU
New Mexico, @Alabama, Central Arkansas, Florida
Those SEC games aren't going anywhere, but the other two look extremely easy to back out of.
Clemson
@LSU, Georgia Southern, Charleston Southern, USCe
Same as FSU.
UNC
TCU (Ireland), ETSU, ND, @UConn
If the grumpy cheaters couldn't find a way out of ETSU or UConn, I call shenanigans.
BC
@Cincy, Rutgers, Maine, @ND
The problem here is that ND is conference-mandated, and Cincy and Rutgers are both home-and-home deals for 2026 and 2027.
GT
Colorado, Tennessee, Mercer, @Georgia
Okay, I'll give the bees credit, this one would be tough to get out of. If they get rid of Mercer, then they have 12 P4 games. Dropping Tennessee would also mean dropping the return trip in 2027, but that would leave the Vols without any P4 OOC games in either season, and they probably wouldn't be able to backfill.
I'll give GT the free pass, because there's gotta be at least one team at 8 games.
I could see BC having problems breaking one of those home-and-home deals, so if they're stuck at 8 games, then one of the other three teams has to stay at 8. (Although, if GT drops Tennessee, the Vols could replace them with whichever team that BC drops.)
Clemson already has FSU and UNC both on the schedule, so the easiest solution would be for FSU and UNC to cancel one game each and play each other.
Of if the ACC was willing to tell Notre Dame to pound sand, then they could add FSU/UNC and Clemson/BC to the schedule and skip this transitional schedule BS.
Either way, the ACC could have squeezed at least one more conference game out of this mess. But I can also acknowledge that there could be some external hurdles if the other teams and conferences didn't want to play nice.
I would love to see how you could come up with a more poorly put together schedule or conference arrangement with 70% of your teams playing more games than the other and on top of that teams have an uneven number of home games.
Can't wait for the tiebreaker between a 7-2 v 6-2 or 6-2 v. 6-3.
Freaking add UCONN (or kick BC out) at this point just to get rid of the dumb schedule and 17 teams.
If anyone gets kicked it should be one of the noobs. SMU would be my choice
If we added anyone, I wish it would be WVU. I hate those bastards, but I loved beating them when it mattered.
This so much. Love beating the cousins. It's a damn shame we don't play them much anymore. I hate them far, far more than Miami or UVA.
We should either go back to playing them regularly OOC, or get them into the ACC.
3 games in the last 20 years vs WVU is criminal. Only 9 games vs Tennessee in 130 years is also insane.
Regardless of how good/bad we are at any given time I would love to have UT and WVU on our schedule every year. That would be the tits for me.
We will win the ACC next year.
Allow an old man a big dream please.
So I'm having this thought. Obviously there's going to be schedule imbalances for the conference with 17 teams and 9 games. Some slates, like 2026, will have tougher than average slates, but other schedules will be easier than average. If the goal for VT and CJMFF is to make the playoffs within the next 4 years, wouldn't we want the tougher slates to be in years 1 and/or 2? So that the easy slates are in years 3 and/or 4 and set us up better once we've had full recruiting cycles come through and develop/mature into upperclassmen?
Problem is in this environment the tough and easy slates can flip year to year. Who thought 13-0 FSU would be 2-10 FSU the next season. Portal wins can flip a team overnight but so can portal misses especially at QB.
That also assumes that the ACC is going to be fair in how they dole out opponents over a stretch in time.
Also....this is the third or fourth time they've overhauled the schedule in five years? First they eliminate divisions, then they have to add three new schools while also realizing that they screwed up some rivalries, and now we have to add extra games. Seriously, how many versions of a 2026 conference schedule have we seen?
At least this time, they didn't bother to give us the next seven years of schedules. I'd say it's because they learned their lesson, but in reality it's because they haven't figured it all out yet.
I definitely thought eliminating divisions was the right move... I was wrong. Not just because of tiebreakers, but because I didn't realize that a division runner up could absolutely have a path to the playoff. Miami just proved that was possible. TCU proved that you could lose the championship game and still make the playoff.
if you listen carefully to what the talking heads are saying you'll see that within a decade the playoff will essentially be a P2 invitational. It'll probably expand one more time to 16 teams (8 SEC, 8 B1G)
Edit: Oh deary me. I forgot to attribute the quote. Nick Saban.
Absolutely repugnant how common this sentiment is
It's amazing to me how many football fans actually hate college football
I get it. If you just want to watch future draft picks, then yea, Conference Realignment/consolidation is great. But watching future draft picks just a little sliver of what college football is about. If you're not into or aware of the rest of it, then you're not going to appreciate the lower levels of the sport.
I compared that list to what fbschedules had before the change up, and that had us playing NC State at home instead of Stanford.
Either way, @SMU is the new addition.
Tie breaker should be total miles traveled.
I haven't looked at every school's slate, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Tobacco Road teams all playing each other, Clemson, UVA, GT, etc and not having to put the effort of long distance travel.
Or come up with some sort of "point" system like hockey/soccer. Away wins = 3 points, home wins = 2 points, OT losses = 1 point.
I'd endorse that tiebreaker, but leave it to the ACC to find a way to get the worst possible teams again. Or they'll just give it to uva and NC State for their Brazil trip.
Duke's away schedule only ranges from Miami to Charlottesville.
Actually, NC State might have the most, with a game in Brazil and in California.
Ours is roughly 12,000 miles round trip
If I'm reading Google correctly, both uva and NC State will have 9,000 mile round trips for the Brazil game. NC State then has to go to Stanford, which is a 5,600-5,800 mile round trip.
But we probably take the crown for miles without leaving the country.
Okay, so I did some math.
It's extremely rough math, because the only place that precision matters here is on Tobacco Road where Duke and UNC are only 11 miles apart.
What I learned:
-UNC has the fewest miles travelled.
-VT has the 5th most miles travelled. The only four with more are either in California or playing in another country.
-If uva played NC State at home, they would have the third fewest miles travelled, and NC State would have the 7th fewest.
-VT's shortest trip (300 miles to Clemson) is longer than all but 1 of UNC's trips.
-Not counting the game at Cal (42 miles away), Stanford's shortest one-way trip (2350 miles to Louisville) is longer than all of UNC's round trips put together.
I am tempering expectations more for next year seeing the travel schedule we have.
I'm not. JMFF will have the team ready.
In case it wasn't abundantly clear how fucking dumb it was to add Cal, Stanford and SMU....
This illustrates that pretty well. I'm still mad about that. It was a ridiculous and short sighted move that realistically has no benefits for any of the teams in the ACC. Frankly I'm surprised and appalled that a majority of the existing institutions even voted in favor of the move.
I can't believe it's more than a band-aid, short term move. In fact, it still feels like an extended version of "ND in the ACC for the covid year." But there's no way it's sustainable for the long term. This was just catching a lifeboat until whatever overhaul happens in the next decade.
I think we should let the backup punter from each team cast a vote for the league championship, you can't vote for your own team.
Are the other teams complaining that too many Hokies show up for the road games? The only good thing about being in the ACC is that we are close proximity to half the conference. THAT benefit went out this window with this damn road schedule. We basically got the 4 corners of the conference all on the road. WTF?!?!
Two things I'm impressed by with this schedule (and not necessarily in a good way):
-We don't play a single NC school.
-We have 4 Virginia teams on the schedule (for now) and all of them are coming to Blacksburg.
Hoping we can go 5-4 in the ACC with that schedule. Obviously would like better, but will be pretty happy with 5-4 with (1) what we have been the past several years, (2) the huge proportion of players changing over and (3) assuming none of the true freshmen we signed will be able to have a substantial role.
We should have a solid run game again next year, and maybe even better than this past season. If we can do two things I think we will be a very competitive ACC team. I can't say how many wins that will turn into, but we should be incredibly competitive if we can do these two things:
1. Actually complete a forward pass. I mean, dang... Any passing game at all helps move the football down the field and opens up an already good ground game even more.
2. Play any sort of defense at all. We've been so incredibly bad from the LB position back for so long. If we can put together an even remotely cohesive unit (one that plays well together with some physicality) that should help us not be one of the worst TD% defenses in the country.
Also, special teams where we don't shoot ourselves in the foot.
It doesn't have to be beamer ball to be a big improvement
Agreed...
It really is profound how so many little things make the difference between a team being competitive and a team being really bad.
You left off getting rid of the STUPID penalties. Late hits after a big stop and false starts on 2nd and 5.
If JMFF wins convincingly at BC, we should be drawing up his extension after the game.
Given our history I understand why you say this; however, even Pry managed to win at BC convincingly.
VT has one of the hardest 2026 ACC schedules. Brutal road schedule that will use the entire $20M gift to pay for flights and hotels. They play 7 of the top 8 teams (based on 2025 results). Playing at Clemson, SMU, and Miami seems like 0-3, but I guess we'll what CJMFF can do with a single offseason.
My hope: VT will manage to get through a tough schedule in 2026, end up 8-4 or better and set themselves up for an easier 2027 schedule that leads to an ACCCG win and CFP appearance.
I'm sure the ACC, in their infinite wisdom, will schedule the Cal road trip to cause the most havoc in the schedule. Like SMU on Saturday, then Cal on the following Friday night.
Is that really that bad? Just keep heading west. The equipment trucks I could see being an issue but for the players make it one big trip, its not like they are playing school anyway anymore.
Bright side of having the hardest schedule is viewership potential