VT extends football series with ODU and Liberty, adds BYU and VMI


Virginia Tech has filled its non-conference football schedules through 2030 by adding six games with Old Dominion, five with Liberty, two with Brigham Young and one with Virginia Military.

The Hokies announced the dates Friday: 2026-31 versus the Monarchs; 2022 and 2027-30 against the Flames; 2026 and ’30 with the Cougars; 2026 versus the Keydets.

“I’m used to working about a decade (in advance),” Tech athletic director Whit Babcock said. “But I’d rather work from this position than have a bunch of holes, where you can get leveraged financially or maybe play a team that’s not strategically best for you.”

Babcock’s predecessor, the late Jim Weaver, determined ODU was a strategic fit, agreeing to a seven-game series that begins this season. Babcock virtually doubled-down, and the programs are contracted to play 13 times in the next 16 years.

The six games in Norfolk — the first is in 2018 — bring Tech to Hampton Roads for the first time since a 1986 neutral-site game versus Temple. The region is fertile recruiting territory and teeming with Hokies faithful.
Tech will receive 2,000 tickets, 400 of them complimentary, for games at ODU, if the Monarchs’ stadium seats less than 25,000. ODU’s proposed stadium upgrade would hold 22,130 and be expandable to 30,000 — the Hokies receive 4,000 tickets if capacity reaches 30,000.

“It’s a chance for us to take games to our fans,” Babcock said of the trips to ODU.

Tech played Liberty for the first time last season, a series that also includes a 2020 meeting at Lane Stadium. Liberty recently announced it is upgrading from the Championship Subdivision to Bowl Subdivision, despite lacking a FBS league home.

The Flames’ decision sparked a flurry of agreements with Power Five conference programs such as Virginia, Wake Forest, Auburn and Ole Miss. Two of the six new Tech-Liberty games are set for the Flames’ home in Lynchburg.

The Hokies join U.Va., Wake and Syracuse as ACC programs that will play at Liberty.

“Admittedly a little change in direction for us,” Babcock said of the extended series with the Flames. “By setting these games way in advance, I realize people probably think we are nuts. But it’s a pretty calculated risk of getting today’s prices on guarantee money. …

“That type of guarantee money to get a FBS team in your place and lock it down, and quite frankly, one hopefully we can beat, and it’s a local one. We just thought it was really good. It maybe doesn’t make quite the sense to people as Old Dominion, but it does to us. U.Va. and Auburn kind of opened our eyes to it.”

Tech will pay Liberty $500,000 for each of the Flames’ 2027-29 trips to Blacksburg. That’s about half, or less, what Power Five schools usually pay FBS opponents from outside the major conferences.

In exchange for the lower guarantees, the Hokies agreed to the road games — they’ll receive $250,000 for their trips to Lynchburg. The new Tech-ODU contract is essentially a check exchange, each visiting team due $250,000.
The 2026 Tech-VMI game reunites former rivals that haven’t met since 1984. The Keydets and Hokies have clashed 79 times.

VMI is the lone FCS program Babcock added to the schedule, reflective of a new ACC policy that restricts the number of FCS opponents the conference can play on a given week — most such games are among a season’s first two. That’s a concession to ESPN, which wants more TV-friendly matchups for the ACC Network, set to launch in 2019.

The only FCS games on Tech’s future schedules are William and Mary in 2018, Furman in 2019, Richmond in 2021 and the aforementioned VMI.
The ACC requires its teams to play at least one non-conference opponent annually from a Power Five conference — independents BYU, Notre Dame and Army also count. By adding the home-and-home with the Cougars, the Hokies will face at least two Power Five non-league teams 10 times in 11 seasons from 2020-30.

The exception is 2022, when Tech is set to meet West Virginia, ODU, Liberty and East Carolina. In 2021, the Hokies have three Power Fives — Michigan, West Virginia and Notre Dame — scheduled.

Babcock said he tried to schedule Army, a natural opponent given Tech’s military connections, but the schools didn’t have mutual available dates.
Friday’s additions give the Hokies’ non-conference schedules a distinct state/regional flavor. From 2018-30, Tech is set to play at least three of four non-league dates in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia or Maryland, right in its Mid-Atlantic recruiting wheelhouse.

Well, d a m n, got to laugh at the LU athletic director for getting FCS money while allowing Tech to walk away with an almost guaranteed W. What a series of embarrassing moves. This leaves LU with little room to squeeze in Morehead State for an FCS game.

I wanted to present the apologists' position on Dukeman's post to see how close I could get once they get it cranked up.

At this point, if we ever do move up, there won't be anyone available in state to play except UVA.

(08-07-2017 07:45 AM)JMUNewbill Wrote:  At this point, if we ever do move up, there won't be anyone available in state to play except UVA.

This, to me, is extremely troubling. You snooze, you lose.

(08-07-2017 07:45 AM)JMUNewbill Wrote:  At this point, if we ever do move up, there won't be anyone available in state to play except UVA.

(08-07-2017 09:11 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(08-07-2017 07:45 AM)JMUNewbill Wrote:  At this point, if we ever do move up, there won't be anyone available in state to play except UVA.

This, to me, is extremely troubling. You snooze, you lose.

I've been harping on this ever since ODU and Appy moved up.

When our time (if ever) comes up, you want to be able to hit the ground running- making that great first impression. Our scheduling options will not be good, especially at home. Our inability to make something happen, has tempered my enthusiasm for FBS ball. I just feel we've missed a window.

The technical term is opportunity cost

(08-06-2017 09:27 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  Well, d a m n, got to laugh at the LU athletic director for getting FCS money while allowing Tech to walk away with an almost guaranteed W. What a series of embarrassing moves. This leaves LU with little room to squeeze in Morehead State for an FCS game.

I wanted to present the apologists' position on Dukeman's post to see how close I could get once they get it cranked up.

Who cares about the money...or the loss. Bringing Tech to Lynchburg > all else.

Long time listener, first time caller.... (Primarily because I kept forgetting my password everytime I wanted to join in)
I have degrees from both Liberty and JMU. In the past 4-5 years I've been to 2 LU games and have not followed much and I've been a season ticket holder to JMU during that time. I am clearly in the minority here, based on the emails from Bourne and social media, but I did not renew my season tix this year and, while I am looking forward to JMU in the playoffs and 2-3 games in the regular season I could not justify all the season tix money to watch us beat up south eastern central Delaware academy art institute, or whomever it is that we schedule each year. I'm not sure I stayed at a game past the MRD's until December the past few years. While it is entertaining to see if we can get to 100 against a team with 117lb lineman it is not engaging enough to keep me there past halftime.

I thought LU was crazy for going indy but I'm actually really looking fwd to getting down to lynchburg for some games in the coming years based on their schedule. They are scheduling legit P5 schools while we get halftime blowouts against glorified community colleges (not talking about you RU but if the shoe fits...)

As others have mentioned, if JMU ever does go FBS, and I am not 100% sure what we should do, who are we going to schedule? The same no names we get now just the FBS version? I would be fine with FBS or FCS but I would like quality opponents at Bridgeforth. And I get the "we schedule weak opponents to boost our resume" argument, but I'll be watching online this season for all but a few games because I can't another 6 58-0 at halftime games. And I will probably find myself in Williams Stadium next year to see the ODU ship sink.

The playoff run, I did make it to the SHSU game and loved it, and the championship were perfect! And I am very excited about doing it again this year. But, sorry for saying this, the regular season apart from 2-3 games are not even circled on my calendar this season.

(08-08-2017 08:28 AM)doubleduke2016 Wrote:  Long time listener, first time caller.... (Primarily because I kept forgetting my password everytime I wanted to join in)
I have degrees from both Liberty and JMU. In the past 4-5 years I've been to 2 LU games and have not followed much and I've been a season ticket holder to JMU during that time. I am clearly in the minority here, based on the emails from Bourne and social media, but I did not renew my season tix this year and, while I am looking forward to JMU in the playoffs and 2-3 games in the regular season I could not justify all the season tix money to watch us beat up south eastern central Delaware academy art institute, or whomever it is that we schedule each year. I'm not sure I stayed at a game past the MRD's until December the past few years. While it is entertaining to see if we can get to 100 against a team with 117lb lineman it is not engaging enough to keep me there past halftime.

I thought LU was crazy for going indy but I'm actually really looking fwd to getting down to lynchburg for some games in the coming years based on their schedule. They are scheduling legit P5 schools while we get halftime blowouts against glorified community colleges (not talking about you RU but if the shoe fits...)

As others have mentioned, if JMU ever does go FBS, and I am not 100% sure what we should do, who are we going to schedule? The same no names we get now just the FBS version? I would be fine with FBS or FCS but I would like quality opponents at Bridgeforth. And I get the "we schedule weak opponents to boost our resume" argument, but I'll be watching online this season for all but a few games because I can't another 6 58-0 at halftime games. And I will probably find myself in Williams Stadium next year to see the ODU ship sink.

The playoff run, I did make it to the SHSU game and loved it, and the championship were perfect! And I am very excited about doing it again this year. But, sorry for saying this, the regular season apart from 2-3 games are not even circled on my calendar this season.

I understand your frustration. It is shared by many. I don't really blame you for checking out some of those P5 home games in Lynchburg.

(08-08-2017 08:45 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I understand your frustration. It is shared by many. I don't really blame you for checking out some of those P5 home games in Lynchburg.

I am hoping to get to the ECU game, have had the tix tad open for weeks now but have not pulled the trigger. I also hope to be at 'Nova and RU games at bridgeforth. I have missed 1 game in the past 4-5 years (Elon last year) and I could not find anyone to take those tix from me. I feel like outside of this board and the jmusportsblog campaigns the Valley is not all that interested in JMU football. I've run into a number of ppl who have lived here their entire lives, follow the NFL/play fantasy football, and keep up with sports in general in some way and they were not even aware that we won the championship last year.

In my world it seems like JMU FB is everywhere but just outside of that bubble are a lot of ppl who live a few minutes away and don't pay attention at all. That is my biggest desire to go FBS is to become more relevant with the casual fan. The ppl who read this board are fans regardless but the masses are the casual fans and Central Connecticut (is CT big enough to have a "central"?) or Morehead are not going to bring them out or sign them up.

I'd tend to agree with you, but it really doesn't matter at this point. It does seem, though, that if you were in the administration and were looking for a reason to say an offer from a FBS league short of the ACC or SEC wasn't good enough to take, an inability to find any in-state FBS opponents to schedule would provide you additional support.

I will once again say that I am in no position to say definitively whether a move to FBS would have been the right one. But the decision not to move up several years ago - despite some obvious and well-founded concerns about the SBC - was never a temporary one. The world of big-boy college football was going to march right along without us having a seat at the table. I suspect it will continue to do so if/when this mythical G5 conference realignment takes place.

Our refusal to move up has put us in a position where all future decisions regarding our future in FBS will be decided by those already in FBS. As some have said with the recent scheduling announcements, one could argue those decisions are already being made for us.

Again, we may look back at our decision to stay FCS as a blessing if/when the G5 crumbles into financial ruin, but I do think our decision to stay FCS was a permanent (or at least very long term) one. I personally view it as a huge missed opportunity, but that's just my opinion.

Like DD2016 stated, at the least we could schedule much better OOC opponents as an FCS team. Sure, it means more travel and fewer home games, but I'd rather see us pick up some quality home-and-home deals than play a cup cake at home.

(08-07-2017 07:45 AM)JMUNewbill Wrote:  At this point, if we ever do move up, there won't be anyone available in state to play except UVA.

Don't be troubled, Bourne is going play the FCS AD of the Year card and lock games with Norfolk State & Hampton for the next decade.

(08-08-2017 08:59 AM)doubleduke2016 Wrote:  

(08-08-2017 08:45 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I understand your frustration. It is shared by many. I don't really blame you for checking out some of those P5 home games in Lynchburg.

I am hoping to get to the ECU game, have had the tix tad open for weeks now but have not pulled the trigger. I also hope to be at 'Nova and RU games at bridgeforth. I have missed 1 game in the past 4-5 years (Elon last year) and I could not find anyone to take those tix from me. I feel like outside of this board and the jmusportsblog campaigns the Valley is not all that interested in JMU football. I've run into a number of ppl who have lived here their entire lives, follow the NFL/play fantasy football, and keep up with sports in general in some way and they were not even aware that we won the championship last year.

In my world it seems like JMU FB is everywhere but just outside of that bubble are a lot of ppl who live a few minutes away and don't pay attention at all. That is my biggest desire to go FBS is to become more relevant with the casual fan. The ppl who read this board are fans regardless but the masses are the casual fans and Central Connecticut (is CT big enough to have a "central"?) or Morehead are not going to bring them out or sign them up.

Completely agree and it has always been odd to me that we don't get stronger attendance from residents of Harrisonburg and surrounding community. Let's face it, there aren't all that many entertainment options in the valley. And tickets are priced reasonably IMO esp. in the upper deck. If I lived there and particularly if I had a family, I'd definitely go to a few games per year. Hopefully we'll reap the benefits of the NC and starting the season ranked #1 and do a lot better with walk up sales this year.

I guess many of the regular posters are on vacation this week. I expected to see more discussion of this...

(08-10-2017 10:53 AM)Rockville Duke Wrote:  I guess many of the regular posters are on vacation this week. I expected to see more discussion of this...

This subject has been discussed on other threads......