Virginia Tech-William & Mary Moved to ESPNews

Oct 26, 2013; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Fans enter Lane Stadium before the game between the Duke Blue Devils and Virginia Tech Hokies. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

The Virginia Tech Hokies already were guaranteed to have at least four games on national television with two games on Thursday Night and the second and third games of the season on national television. Of course, the one early-season game that wasn’t on national television was the Hokies’ season opener against William & Mary. This game was slated for ESPN3 but no direct national audience on cable until an interesting announcement recently.

Virginia Tech’s season opener will now be nationally televised on ESPNews in what was somewhat of a surprise given the fact that the Hokies will likely not be in the first top 25 rankings by anyone and that William & Mary is a FCS program. This will also be able to be used as a motivation tool by Frank Beamer as he can make sure the Hokies don’t look ahead while also telling his players that they get the chance to showcase their skills to a national audience and impress top 25 voters.

This move of this game on to ESPNews almost certainly means that the whole Hokies’ schedule will be on cable in all of ACC country whether it is nationally on an ESPN network or on the ACC Network. This is something that the Hokies haven’t really ever had and that could also be partly due to how some games with SEC teams will be on the SEC Network that would have been on an ESPN network instead.

Also, ESPN is showing that they have a lot of respect for the power of Virginia Tech football to put the Hokies against the Tribe on national television. This can even be used as a recruiting tool to prove that the networks want to put the Hokies on television and that they can get tons of exposure. There are definitely a lot of positives for the Hokies being on national telelvision for what is likely to be a blowout victory against William & Mary.