Virginia Tech Football: New Bowl Projections Following The Penultimate College Football Playoff Rankings
The college football regular season is now over and all that is left is championship weekend before we dive into bowl season and the first ever season of the 12-team college football playoff. For Virginia Tech, this season was a bit of a disappointment considering the amount of production they brought back and their schedule, but they were able to get another win over rival Virginia and make the postseason. Where will they go though? There were several projections that came out on Sunday, but those have shifted with the latest editon of the College Football Playoff Rankings. With Miami on the outside looking in as far as the College Football Playoff goes, that moved the ACC's projected bowl spots around a little bit. Keep in mind, if Clemson wins and both the Tigers and SMU get in the playoff, that will likley shift around yet again.
Following the release of the rankings on Tuesday, the Action Network's Brett McMurphy released his updated bowl projections and has the Hokies going to Charlotte to play in the Duke's Mayo Bowl against Minnesota. This would be the first-ever meeting between the programs and would be an interesting one. The Golden Gophers finished their season 7-5 but were close to pulling off wins against North Carolina, Michigan, and Penn State. It would be a challenging matchup for Virginia Tech.
At 247Sports, analyst Brad Crawford switched his projection from Sunday. Originally he had the Hokies in the Fenway Bowl against Tulane, but he now has Virginia Tech heading back to the Military Bowl to face East Carolina. The programs have faced each other 22 times previously and Virginia Tech holds the all-time series lead 15-7.
Jerry Palm at CBS Sports had Virginia Tech in the Fenway Bowl on Sunday and he still has the Hokies making the trip to Boston. Instead of facing East Carolina though, he has them facing UConn, who turned in a nice 8-4 season under Jim Mora Jr and nearly beat a few ACC teams. Virginia Tech has won both previous matchups vs the Huskies in 2001 (52-10) and 2003 (47-13).
The bowl projections from ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have not been updated since Sunday. At ESPN, both Bonagura and Schlabach also have Virginia Tech going to Boston to play in the Fenway bowl. Bonagura has Virginia Tech facing Tulane while Schlabach has them facing Memphis. Virginia Tech has faced Memphis six times previously and the all-time series is tied 3-3. They have not faced each other since 1985 and the Hokies have won the last three matchups between the Tigers.
So there is not a consensus on where the Hokies are headed just yet and the most interesting projections are going to be on Saturday night/Sunday morning when the conference championships are done.
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Jackson Caudell has been covering Georgia Tech Athletics For On SI since March 2022 and the Atlanta Hawks for On SI since October 2023. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell