James Franklin's first camp and season as head football coach at Virginia Tech is here now that the calendar has turned to August. With Labor Day late this season, we're going to have to wait a little longer to see his Hokies debut on Sept. 5 under the lights at Lane Stadium against VMI.
Earlier this week, the ACC Preseason Poll was released, and as expected, the Hokies finished in the middle of the pack, at No. 8. If we're being honest, most Virginia Tech fans would take an eighth-place finish in the ACC this fall. Sure, finishing higher in Franklin's first season would be most fans' dream, but take the preseason poll with a grain of salt after the way things shook out.
Miami was picked to finish at the top, and they had the most first-place votes, 165 of them. SMU was picked second, Florida State was picked 11th, and Stanford was picked dead last at 17. However, FSU had three votes to win the ACC, and Stanford had one. I'm not kidding. Take that for what you will.
New tiebreaker put in place by the ACC
This season, there is an unbalanced ACC schedule in terms of the number of conference games each team plays. Virginia Tech. Some teams are playing eight ACC games, while some are playing nine. If you're playing nine ACC games, like Virginia Tech is, that means you're only playing one Power 4 non-conference opponent. If you're playing eight ACC games, you're playing two Power 4 non-conference games.
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During Media Days earlier last month, the ACC released the new tiebreaker system that needed to be updated after the fiasco that ensued last year when Duke got the final spot in the ACC Championship Game over Miami.
The updated tiebreaking procedure will be built on three guiding principles,
- Head-to-head results will always matter most.Â
- No team will be overly rewarded or penalized based on the number of conference games it played.Â
- When head-to-head competition cannot separate tied teams, the team with the strongest overall body of work will earn the opportunity to compete for the ACC Championship and the conference's automatic qualifier to the College Football Playoff.Â
Let's see how this plays out.
James Franklin sets off social media firestorm
It doesn't take much for James Franklin to set off a social media firestorm. In fact, it didn't take long at his first ACC Media Days last month in Charlotte. Franklin said that the Hokies won the offseason, but of course, in typical social media fashion, that comment was taken a bit out of context.
Franklin was referring to Virginia Tech getting things in place during the winter and spring faster than he thought they might. Now, after those comments, he knows that the results in 2026 will be determined on the field, not off of it.
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