The good news for the Virginia Tech football team coming out of their bye week on Halloween Weekend was that the win before their bye week, 20-16, over Clemson in South Carolina, improved the to the Hokies ' record to 6-2 and they were bowl-eligible.
The bad for Virginia Tech coming out of the break was that they had to visit SMU. It was a big game for the Hokies in terms of keeping their slim ACC Championship Game hopes alive, and they showed and played like they had no interest in getting to Charlotte next month for what is now the final ACC Championship Game that will ever be played.
SMU steamrolled the Hokies, 51-28, and now sits at 6-3 with three regular-season games remaining, beginning this Saturday night at home against Stanford. The good news is that first-year head coach James Franklin knows that his team will get one more game to prepare for the Commonwealth Clash in two weeks in Blacksburg, and looking at some projections, there are a lot of potentially juicy matchups Virginia Tech could be looking at.
Virginia Tech updated bowl projections after blowout loss at SMU
There are still three games left before Virginia Tech gets an official opponent for a game later next month. Let's take a look at some of the updated projections following this past weekend's results.
- CBS Sports: Gator Bowl: vs. Ole Miss
- Athlon Sports: Holiday Bowl: vs. Oregon
- SI: Holiday Bowl: vs. USC
- ESPN: Mark Schlabach: Gator Bowl vs. LSU; Kyle Bonagura: Sun Bowl: vs. Arizona
I mean, come on, look at those matchups. Don't tell me Hokies fans wouldn't sign up for any of those. Ole Miss, who was in the College Football Playoff semifinal last year, Oregon, who just went into Columbus, Ohio, and ripped Ohio State, USC, which has Lincoln Riley on the hot seat. LSU and Lane Kiffin and Arizona in the Sun Bowl? Yes, yes, yes, and again, yes.
Now, again, there are still three weeks left in the 2026 season before anyone can start thinking about a bowl game and a bowl opponent, including Franklin. Not only do the Hokies' results determine which bowl game they could end up in, but the results across the ACC will also determine which bowl games they will be considered for. It appears that if Miami wins the ACC Championship, then they will likely be the only CFP team.
If it plays out that way, then it will be interesting to see how things play out. Truth be told, Virginia Tech fans would be happy with a bowl game, and even more, will the Hokies be doing it as a six-, seven-, or eight-win team? If things go as a lot of people expect, seven or eight is the likely number. Whatever it ends up being, it starts with the Cardinal this week, and wherever Virginia Tech gets placed, Hokies fans will travel as they have in past seasons, no matter what the weather may be across the country.
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