Virginia Tech suffered its first conference loss of the year with a heartbreaking loss to Miami.
The Hokies may have lost that game, but this performance made some analysts feel more optimistic about where Virginia Tech would land in the postseason.
Each week, ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach publish their Bowl Predictions, predicting the new 12-team playoff format and the 36-game schedule for other bowl games.
This week’s predictions put Virginia Tech out of the College Football Playoff, but they did play two other bowl games against either Group 5 contenders or strong Power 4 teams.
Kyle Bonagura predicted the Hokies would play in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, a bowl game between ACC and AAC teams. Last year’s Wasabi Fenway Bowl featured a matchup between Boston College and SMU, and the previous year’s matchup between Cincinnati and Louisville.
Who is this prophecy against? Memphis Tigers. The Tigers entered the season as a team vying for a fifth conference championship in the College Football Playoff, but a 56-44 loss to Navy likely ended that dream unless all other Group 5 champions lost. It would be a setback. You can’t go undefeated.
Mark Schlabach went in a different direction than expected, leading the Hokies to the Birmingham Bowl against TCU. This would be an exciting matchup, but it’s highly unlikely. The Birmingham Bowl currently works with the SEC and AAC, with C-USA and the MAC acting as alternates if the SEC and AAC are unable to fulfill their commitments. In the unlikely event that a team is unable to play in all four of these conferences, this would be the only way TCU and Virginia Tech could meet in this game.
In that scenario, it would be a very fun matchup. Virginia Tech has an explosive offense, as evidenced by their performance against Miami last week, and TCU is the most explosive in the country, as evidenced by their 42.2 points per game on offense. He has a unique offense.
