What Georgia Tech’s Win Against Florida State Means For Virginia Tech
Yesterday the impossible happened—again. In walk-off fashion, very reminiscent of the Miracle on Techwood Drive, Georgia Tech took down a top ten Florida State team, who was one of the favorites to win the ACC. This win is huge for Florida fans, Miami fans, as well as Virginia Tech fans. This win really does open the floor for Virginia Tech.
Not only did taking down the Seminoles expose some bigger problems that Florida State may have, it helped pave the way for the Hokies later in the season, to help with a birth in the ACC Championship. There’s a flurry of teams who will be looking in to the Championship game at the end of the season, and Florida State could still be one of them. With Florida State’s loss to Georgia Tech, their most reasonable path would be finishing with two conference losses, dropping a game to Clemson or Miami. Let’s say they lose to Miami for the sake of this demonstration. Assuming Florida State takes care of business elsewhere, they would have a 6-2 record in the conference.
We’ll touch back with Florida State in a second, let’s say Virginia Tech goes through the ACC, also dropping two games, defeating Florida State’s kryponite—Georgia Tech and defeating Clemson, and losing to Miami and another ACC team. Virginia Tech would be tied with Florida State with two conference losses, and a 6-2 record.
In this hypothetical scenario, giving Miami wins against Virginia Tech and Florida State, the Hurricanes could finish undefeated in the conference, dealing their name in the ACC Championship Game.
The kicker in this scenario is Clemson. Clemson would need to drop two more conference game, most likely against NC State or Louisville. Again, let’s just assume Clemson loses to Louisville and defeats NC State, but doesn’t join the tie for second in the conference.
If all of that plays out, it’s not unreasonable to think there could be a four-way tie for second place in the ACC. With NC State, Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Florida State all tied for second in the conference.
In this crazy scenario, the new ACC tiebreaker rules would apply. First, you would look at the combined head-to-head win-percentage among the tied teams if all tied teams are common opponents, these teams are not all common opponents. Secondly, If all the tied teams are not common opponents (which is true), the tied team that defeated each of the other tied teams would win the tiebreaker, that team does not exist in this case, so go down the list once more. The next tiebreaker rule in question is to compare win-percentage versus all common opponents.
The common opponents in this scenario would be Clemson and Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech defeated both of these teams. NC State, lost to Clemson. Florida State, lost to Georgia Tech. Louisville, beat both of these teams, so now there’s a tie to break between the Cardinals and the Hokies.
The next tiebreaker is win-percentage versus common opponents based upon their order of finish (overall conference win-percentage, with ties broken and proceeding through other common opponents based upon their order of finish. This tiebreaker sounds complicated at first, but isn’t. Start off by finding common opponents, and comparing performances starting with the highest-ranked team in the conference and so on.
Louisville has six common opponents with Virginia Tech: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Stanford, Boston College, and Virginia. In this scenario, both teams lost to #1 Miami. The next team in the conference according to this prediction, would be Clemson, which both team beat. Georgia Tech is the same situation. Moving on to Stanford is where Virginia Tech finds its advantage, I projected Stanford to beat Louisville, and not Virginia Tech, hence Virginia Tech being lifted into the ACC Championship Game.
This would not have happened without Georgia Tech defeating Florida State.
This win is also big in other ways, not just hypothetical scenarios down the road. This also makes Virginia Tech look a little bit better strength of schedule wise. Assuming that Georgia Tech’s win knocks Florida State into the third spot in the conference, ranking wise, that would mean Virginia Tech plays the #1, #2, and possibly #4 team in the conference if Georgia Tech can hold it together.
These games could be some great quality wins for Virginia Tech, or some quality losses later on in the season. Regardless, Virginia Tech’s schedule could be looked at as much stronger after the season is over.
RJ SCHAFER
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.