When the ACC dropped the 2026 football schedules, one quick look at James Franklin's first schedule at Virginia Tech certainly opened some eyes. If there was one quick takeaway, it's that the backend of the schedule is going to be a daunting stretch.
Just going off of last year's results, the Hokies were being dealt a tough hand. Nobody was denying that. However, last week the ACC dropped its ACC Preseason Poll for football, and one quick look at it compounds how difficult things are going to be for Virginia Tech late in the fall.
ACC preseason poll compounds how difficult Virginia Tech football's backend of the schedule is
Ok, so we really aren't breaking much news here that the backend of the Hokies schedule is much tougher than the front end. For a refresher, here is how things end up playing out last week when the poll was officially released.
- Miami Hurricanes: 3,159 points (165 first-place votes)
- SMU Mustangs: 2,794 points (6 first-place votes)
- Louisville Cardinals: 2,569 points (4 first-place votes)
- Clemson Tigers: 2,520 points (7 first-place votes)
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: 2,006 points (2 first-place votes)
- Virginia Cavaliers: 1,981 points
- North Carolina State Wolfpack: 1,964 points
- Virginia Tech Hokies: 1,962 points
- Pittsburgh Panthers: 1,740 points
- Duke Blue Devils: 1,439 points
- Florida State Seminoles: 1,439 points (3 first-place votes)
- California Golden Bears: 1,392 points
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons: 1,103 points
- Syracuse Orange: 878 points
- North Carolina Tar Heels: 831 points
- Boston College Eagles: 491 points
- Stanford Cardinal: 483 points (1 first-place vote)
So there are a couple of takeaways. Virginia Tech will play three of the top four teams on the road, all during the second half of their schedule. They will visit Miami in late November, SMU in early November, and Clemson in late October. Those are their three final conference road games. That's less than ideal.
As far as the other top 7 schools picked ahead of Franklin's team, Georgia Tech, picked 5th, visits Blacksburg in October, and No. 6 Virginia visits Thanksgiving Weekend. As far as the Hokies slotting in at No. 8, they host No. 9 Pittsburgh and No. 17 Stanford, while they visit No. 12 Cal and No. 16 Boston College.
Let's not look at first-place votes in parentheses, especially for Stanford with one. What are we doing here? Anyway, Virginia Tech must take care of business on the front end of its schedule. There is no doubt about that. Winning their three non-conference games is a must, as is beating Boston College in Chestnut Hill in their first ACC game in late September.
The Hokies' over/under is 6.5 wins at FanDuel, and that feels about right. You can see it going over, and you can see it going under with six wins. That's what we love about college football.
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