Virginia Tech Shoots Up SP+ Rankings After Win Against Stanford
Virginia Tech had their first dominating win of the year in 31-7 fashion against Stanford.
Due to this win, the Hokies returned all the way back to their preseason SP+ ranking. Virginia Tech dropped all the way to 51st after their week one loss to Vanderbilt, but has seen an improvement in rankings over their past three wins.
Virginia Tech over-performed their expectations, and jumped all the way back to 36th, one spot ahead of West Virginia, and one spot behind BYU.
Stanford dropped all the way to 87th on Bill Connelly's SP+ Rankings, which is the second lowest ranking in the Power Four, only ahead of Purdue.
Virginia Tech is heading into their bye week, which arguably kills their momentum, but the Hokies are preparing to face off against Boston College, the 51st best team in Connelly's rankings.
The Hokies have came back fro their free-fall at the beginning of the season, and the Hokies are still in the running for the ACC Championship Game due to only having one conference loss on the season. To keep climbing the SP+ rankings, Brent Pry and the Hokies would probably have to go on a run in ACC play, beating Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse.
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."
RJ Schafer joined the On SI team in 2024, contributing to the coverage of Major League Baseball, Collegiate Basketball, and Collegiate Football at https://www.si.com/college/virginiatech/. Prior to this, RJ built a strong portfolio covering Georgia Tech and the Tigers for the Bleav Network. With a solid background in sports journalism, RJ has conducted interviews with both collegiate and professional athletes, enhancing the depth and authenticity of his reporting. RJ's extensive experience in the sports industry has equipped him with a keen understanding of the dynamics and intricacies of both collegiate and professional sports. His work is focused on providing insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage, making him a trusted voice in the sports community.