When the season began, there was a small chance that Friday night's matchup between Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech could have been a matchup of two 4-0 teams in Blacksburg.
It wasn't going to be surprising to see Pitt undefeated, as their first four games were at home, and Friday night's game will be the first on the road for coach Pat Narduzzi and his team. As far as James Franklin and the Hokies go, they had their first two games at home before two road games at Maryland and Boston College leading into the matchup.
As expected, Pitt steamrolled to four wins, but the Hokies had a more difficult path and gutted out road wins over the Terrapins and Eagles. The latter needed a fourth-quarter rally in Chestnut Hill last weekend in a storm to pull out a 21-14 victory. However, when the two teams meet at Lane Stadium on Friday night, it'll be a historic night for not only the ACC, but all of college football.
Virginia Tech/Pitt matchup to make history on Friday night
There has been a long-standing disrespect toward the ACC in football. Whether that's with fanbases in the SEC or the Big Ten, or with AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll voters. Now, the only rankings that matter come out in November, and those are the College Football Playoff rankings. However, with neither Virginia Tech nor Pittsburgh ranked, Friday night's matchup will be the first matchup of unranked 4-0 major conference teams.
Virginia Tech vs. Pitt will make college football history on Friday night 👀
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) September 30, 2026
It will be the first matchup in modern college football history between two unranked 4-0 major conference teams 🤯
Should either of these teams be ranked? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/SCs5kT8WAe
Now, let's be clear: if the Panthers and Hokies were both in the SEC or Big Ten, this would be a Top 25 matchup. You could even go further and say if they were in the SEC, this would at least be a Top 15 matchup. That's not an exaggeration. They are not, and they are both in the ACC, which really shouldn't be a surprise that neither team is ranked. You could make the case that at least one of them should be.
Whoever wins this game will be ranked, and with both teams having matchups with Miami looming later in the season, this is an even bigger matchup. It has been some time since there has been a matchup with this much hype in Blacksburg- almost a decade. This is a matchup that ESPN is drooling over in a 7 p.m. primetime slot that a lot of the country will be tuning in to. It's too bad it's a game between two undefeated and unranked teams in the month of October. Thus is life in the ACC.
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