SP+ Projects Virginia Tech vs Old Dominion Final Score

Will the Hokies defeat Old Dominion this weekend?

Sep 7, 2024; Blacksburg, Virginia, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies wide receiver Da'Quan Felton (9) celebrates with his teammates after making a touchdown catch during the fourth quarter against the Marshall Thundering Herd at Lane Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

It was not perfect by any means, but Virginia Tech got the win on Saturday vs Marshall behind a strong second half performance by the offense and an all-around good day from the defense. It still looks like there are plenty of things to work on for the Hokies, but it is better to be figuring that out after a win. This Saturday, Virginia Tech will have to beat a team that has had success against them before. Old Dominion will welcome Virginia Tech on Saturday and the Monarchs have gotten wins over the Hokies in 2022 and 2018, so they should have the full attention of this team. Not only that, but ODU nearly pulled off the upset against South Carolina in week one.

When looking at the game this Saturday, ESPN College Football Analyst Bill Connelly's SP+ rankings have Virginia Tech favored by 14.7 on Saturday. SP+ is projecting Virginia Tech to win by a score of 34-19 and gives them an 82% chance to win the game.

🍺🍻 WEEK 3 SP+ PICKS 🍷🥂

K-State 35, Zona 25
Bama 33, Wisconsin 15
LSU 31, SC 27
Mizzou 39, BC 16
Ducks 36, Beavers 23
UW 35, Wazzu 25
Irish 31, Boilers 20
UGA 38, Kentucky 26

Half the lines are within 3 points of SP+, so uh, good luck.https://t.co/w7ALlZmjBl pic.twitter.com/z21QqcKFwb

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 9, 2024

What exactly is SP+? Here is how Connelly himself describes it:

"As always, these are based on three primary factors: returning production (final rankings for which you can find at the bottom of this piece), recent recruiting and recent history. How good have you been recently? Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don't have coming back? That's loosely what we ask when we're setting expectations for a team; it's also what these projections attempt to do objectively.

As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."