3 Virginia Tech football opponents have a Top 10 toughest schedules in 2024

We are still three months away from the 2024 college football season kicking off. Virginia Tech will kickoff on Labor Day weekend in Nashville, Tennessee against SEC foe Vanderbilt, the first of their four straight non-conference games to begin the season.

After their four non-conference games, the Hokiess will finish the season with their eight ACC games, and on paper at least, the conference schedule looks doable in terms of being in the hunt for a spot in the ACC race. There is no Florida State or Louisville on it and after opening with road games at Miami and Stanford, six of their last eight games will be at home.

Three of the Hokies' 12 opponents rank in the Top 10 in the country according to one college football writer as having the hardest schedules in the country.

Three Virginia Tech 2024 opponents facing a difficult schedule

Two of the three teams that Brad Crawford of 247Sports thinks have the hardest schedules in the country rank in the Top 10 for 2024. One of them is rather surprising and could be in for a long season if things don’t go right.

10. Clemson

The Tigers, who have been very quiet in the transfer portal compared to other schools, have a difficult start to the season by facing Georgia in Atlanta, but they have conference road games at Florida State, Louisville, and Virginia Tech. They visit Blacksburg on Nov. 9 and there could be a lot on the line for both teams.

6. Georgia Tech

The Yellow Jackets have an extremely difficult schedule to close out the season with games against Notre Dame (Meercedes-Benz Stadium), at Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina State, and at Georgia. Yikes, that’s rough. If there is a silver lining, it’s that all of those games except for a trip to Blacksburg and Athens, will be essentially home games. Still, I’m surprised this wasn’t in the Top 5.

5. Vanderbilt

This one was a surprise at first glance but on my goodness. What a schedule is awaiting the Commodores. After starting with what Crawford calls “ACC darkhorse Virginia Tech,’’ Vanderbilt has some winnable non-conference games, but SEC games at Missouri, Alabama, at Kentucky, Texas, at Auburn South Carolina, at LSU, and Tennessee is not a schedule anyone wants. Again, this must be a season-opening win for the Hokies on the road.

Looking at what other ACC teams have, Virginia Tech should feel like they have a very doable ACC schedule to be in contention during the season. Games at Miami and Stanford on back-to-back weeks will be a very tough early-season challenge.