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ACC announces West Virginia game will be nationally televised

By Mike McDaniel

Nov 5, 2016; Durham, NC, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Justin Fuente watches his team from the sidelines in the second half against the Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 5, 2016; Durham, NC, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Justin Fuente watches his team from the sidelines in the second half against the Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports /
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In a move that was yet to be formally announced prior to Friday, the Virginia Tech Hokies and West Virginia Mountaineers’ opener on Labor Day eve night will be nationally televised on ESPN.

This, of course, was assumed when the game was announced as a 7:30 tilt on Sunday, September 3rd at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

The ACC and ESPN made the game official on Friday as one of the six nationally televised games that has already been scheduled as a primetime game ahead of next season.

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The Hokies and the Mountaineers are meeting for the 52nd time in history, but for the first time since the 2005 season, when both teams were members of the Big East Conference.

West Virginia leads the all-time series between the two schools 28-22-1.

The Hokies take the field in September defending their first ACC Coastal Division title since the 2011 season.

The team went 10-4 last season in Justin Fuente’s first season at the helm, and will look to improve upon that mark despite sweeping changes on the offensive side of the football.

Despite many changes on offense, the defense remains strongly intact, with nine of eleven starters on that side of the football returning to the fold in 2017.

The neutral site opener against West Virginia will be the first of a number of stern tasks on the 2017 slate, as the Hokies also battle the defending national champion Clemson Tigers in late September, go on the road to Miami in early November, and follow that up with a game in Atlanta against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, who upset the Hokies in Blacksburg in 2016.

While the West Virginia game certainly will not be the only match-up to be nationally televised for the Hokies this upcoming season, fans will have something to officially look forward to in that neutral site tilt on Labor Day weekend.

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