James Franklin & Virginia Tech got screwed by the ACC in terms of conference schedule

After struggling through a 3-9 2025 season, things can go nowhere but up for the Virginia Tech football team under first-year head coach James Franklin. He has brought in a Top 25 Class of 2026 recruiting class, along with a lot of promising players through the Transfer Portal. Franklin also got some key retention from this past season's roster as well.

Make no mistake about it, the first season is going to be difficult for several reasons for the Hokies, and maybe no more important than with their schedule. That was officially released on Monday night. We knew the three non-conference games were the first three weeks, but as far as conference games, the dates were released. One quick look at it and you can say that the ACC didn't do Virginia Tech and Franklin any favors.

ACC does James Franklin and Virginia Tech no favors with 2026 schedule

In 2026, the ACC is requiring all of its teams to play 10 power conference games, and if you are only playing one power conference school in the non-conference, then you are playing nine conference games. The Hokies are one of the schools playing nine conference games.

As far as scheduling goes, for the second season in a row, Virginia Tech is looking at a brutal November schedule. This past season, it was Louisville, Florida State, Miami, and Virginia. The Hokies went 0-4 in those games and were not really competitive in any of those games, aside from the first half against Louisville.

Fast forward 12 months, and it is going to be another nasty November. This upcoming season, the Hokies will begin the month (actually Halloween Weekend) with their bye week, which is very late, but after that, they have a road game at SMU, a home game against Stanford, a road game at Miami on a Friday night, before hosting Virginia Thanksgiving Weekend.

That's daunting to say the least. As far as expectations go in Year 1 of Franklin in Blacksburg, it's going to be difficult to forecast until the season starts. After coming off a three-win season, any reasonable Hokies fan would say reach a bowl game in 2026. If that is going to happen, they'll need to take care of as much business as they can in September and October, with a brutal last month of the season waiting for them.