VT extends football series with ODU and Liberty, adds BYU and VMI
By David Teel
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.
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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.
"That's why we also say it is subject to change," Babcock said of the tentative 2021 gantlet.
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.
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Then there are trips to iconic venues such as Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin and Notre Dame.
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"When you look at it collectively," Babcock said, "you can see that it's pretty stout."
Tech's complete non-conference lineup is here.
I can be reached at 757-247-4636 or by email at dteel@dailypress.com. Follow me at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP
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