BLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech Athletics Department announced Tuesday several date changes to its non-conference football dates. With the addition of Notre Dame in 2019, the department has moved future contests with Penn State and Wisconsin and announced the addition of another Big Ten Conference school to its future football slates to go along with previously announced opponents from Power 5 schools.
The scheduling of the 2019 Notre Dame game on Nov. 2, which was announced in mid-October, left the Hokies with only five home games that season and necessitated the shifting of future games. Virginia Tech will also play at Notre Dame on Nov. 19, 2016, and will play host to the Fighting Irish in Blacksburg on Oct. 13, 2018 and Oct. 9, 2021.
“Our goal is to have at least six home games every year,” Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock said. “So we needed to do some rearranging to make this happen, and both athletics departments at Wisconsin and Penn State were gracious enough to work with us.”
The Hokies and Nittany Lions were scheduled to play during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. The Hokies’ home game with Penn State on Sept. 17, 2022, has been moved to Sept. 12, 2020, and their return trip to University Park, Pennsylvania, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 16, 2023, has been moved to Sept. 6, 2025.
Tech and Wisconsin were slated to play during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Tech was supposed to play in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sept. 14, 2019, but that game has been moved to Sept. 14, 2024. The Hokies’ home game with the Badgers that was slated for Sept. 12, 2020, has been moved to Sept. 13, 2025.
Also, Babcock announced that Tech and Rutgers will be renewing a rivalry from the two schools’ days in the BIG EAST Conference, as both athletics departments agreed to dates for a future home-and-home series in football. The Hokies will go to Piscataway, New Jersey, for a game on Sept. 16, 2023, with Rutgers returning the trip to Lane Stadium for a game on Sept. 21, 2024.
Rutgers will become the sixth Big Ten school to be added to the Hokies’ future schedules. In addition to Penn State and Wisconsin, Tech plays Ohio State next season and Purdue in 2015 and 2023, and also has a future series lined up against Michigan. The Hokies also have games against Tennessee (Battle at Bristol) in 2016 and West Virginia in 2017 at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, as well as a home-and-home with the Mountaineers in 2021 and 2022. For a look at the Hokies’ future schedules, click here: http://www.hokiesports.com/football/schedule/future
“I am very pleased with our future scheduling,” Babcock said. “Jim Weaver, Coach Beamer and John Ballein were ahead of their time on advance scheduling and strength of schedule, which is so important in the new playoff structure. It’s nice to be the recipient of their proactive efforts and our fans and players will ultimately be the beneficiaries. We want to be the best and play the best. We want to bring marquee games to Lane Stadium. This schedule sets up very nicely for us over the next decade. We may make some slight tweaks, but, in general, we are set for the next 10 years.”
Tech and Rutgers have played 15 times, with the Hokies winning 12 of those. The two programs played 12 straight years while in the BIG EAST from 1992-2003. The Hokies currently have a 12-game winning streak over the Scarlet Knights.
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So let me get this correct…..over the next 10 years we will play six Big10 schools, WVU, ND and ECU more times then we will in all likelihood play any of the schools in the ACC Atlantic Division excepting BC.
I very much like and commend the OOC scheduling, but for the ACC to say it is a “conference” in football is a farce…..our “conference” is the Coastal Conference.
Why do schools have out of conference schedules planned out 10-20 years in advance. Schools change conferences, have other commitments pop up at the last minute (e.g., Chik-Fil-A Kickoff), and administrations change and remake new deals/games.
I think schools should they should just plan OOC games for 3-5 years. I don’t take any trust or care for any OOC games against Power 5 opponents that are more than 3 years out.
Really? Does anyone really believe the Wisconsin games will ever be played? How many times have they been moved / cancelled now?
Rutgers? Whoop-Dee-Doo…
Cant wait to buy tickets for 2019 – Furman, Old Dominion, Duke, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and NC
Relax Hokiefroy. Stay in the moment. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
Damn, I was really wishing, wishing upon a star, for a home game Sept. 6, 2025.
Don’t you have a dental appointment that day?
A lot of those schedules look very scary, particularly if ECU and Duke continue to have good teams
Huh??
Wow. We play FSU in 2018. This is the only regular season meeting until 2023. So we play them 1x every 10 years? Did I misread that?
unless we play 9 regular season games or eliminate the permanent crossover…that is how it is going to be
I would love to eliminate the permanent crossover, but most schools would likely be opposed as those would eliminate rivalry games (NC ST-UNC, FL ST-Miami, Clemson-GT, for instance)
We got stuck with a crappy, irrelevant crossover.
Or can we encourage the ACC to offer ECU membership? Then we would play them less, and hopefully FSU more?
Who has our number and has beaten us more often than not recently.
Nope, you got it right.
Will, it seems to me that Rutgers is a step down in terms of quality of competition / development of some kind of future rivalry. They are not PSU or UW. Do you think the last three lackluster years have made quality teams not want to schedule new series?
To me, I would wonder if a quality team would see us as a lose / lose situation, whether due to current erratic play, or even just the uncertainty of what happens with the new coach we he takes over. Am I over-thinking this?
Those are so far in the future it’s hard to tell how good a team’s going to be. With the way it cycles and all programs having some down years, it wouldn’t be surprising for Rutgers to be a better team when we play them than PSU or Wisconsin will be.
You’re overthinking the other part IMO. Funny how some people speculate that teams don’t want to play us because we’re too good, while others speculate that teams don’t want to play us because we’re not good enough.
Time to get LOUD! Let’s Go Hokies