Can Tyrod help the Hokies live up to the hype?

For those of you that weren't already salivating over the upcoming college football season, ESPN tossed us another bone this morning by releasing the results of the USA Today preseason coaches' poll. The Hokies come in sixth, which is (I believe, or at least according to ESPN and HokieSports.com) the highest preseason ranking in school history. That ranking is one spot better than their preseason ranking a year ago (#7) and four ahead of their final ranking (#10 according to the coaches). The Hokies will also face a top-five opponent to open the season for a second straight year, with Boise State falling one place ahead of them at #5. Based on these rankings, this game should be what we all expected it to be: hard-fought, close, and extremely exciting. Fortunately, the rankings just help build up the hype for the season and give us all the more reason to talk about it! Here are some other thoughts on the top-25 as a whole:

Conference: Miami, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Florida State all rank in the top twenty, which says something about the respect the ACC is already receiving this season. With big out-of-conference games against the likes of Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, BYU, Oklahoma, and Florida, this group has its work cut out to live up to the hype. The SEC leads all conferences with six in the top-25, followed by the ACC's five. The Big Ten checks in with four (Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State), Big Twelve has three (Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska), while the Big East (Pitt, West Virginia) and Pac-10 (Oregon, Oregon State) bring up the rear with two each. Three non-AQ teams also made the cut, including Boise, TCU and Utah.

Rivals: West Virginia came in tied for twenty-fourth this season, despite high hopes for star running back Noel Devine. Looks like breaking in a new quarterback knocked them down a few pegs...oh, and the fact that Bill Stewart is still their coach...

Hokies' Schedule: The Coastal division boasts four top-twenty teams, so the Hokies' schedule already looks like a murder's row. They will face #13 (Miami), #17 (Georgia Tech) and #18 (North Carolina), along with the possibility of facing #20 Florida State in the ACC Championship. Not a bad SOS if I do say so myself.

Overall Thoughts: I think that Florida and Texas, while both loaded with blue-chip talent get a little too much credit considering that they have to replace their long-time starting quarterbacks this season. Boise should probably be a little higher, and the Hokies should probably be buried a little deeper in the top-ten (maybe #8 or #9) because they have to replace so many impact defenders. Iowa could be a little higher, as could Georgia Tech.

What are your guys thoughts? Are the Hokies too high or too low? What about our rivals? Tell us what you think in the comments!

Can Beamerball be the key to a Virginia Tech victory over the Broncos?

Throughout the summer, there have been a lot of arguments thrown out as to why Virginia Tech will win or lose their opening game of the 2010 season against Boise State. Many people point to Boise's 21 returning starters, prolific offense, solid defense, or penchant for playing up to their opponents in big games as reason that they will be hard to topple on Labor Day. Other people feel that the Hokies simply have too many holes on defense or the offensive line to hang with the Broncos. Boise is currently favored in the match up, and there are a lot of reasons to pick them to come out on top when they make their way across the country to play Tech. However, there's still one major reason that I think the Hokies have an edge in this kind of game to start the season, and it probably won't surprise you.

It's Beamerball.

On a few different BSU message boards and blogs, I've notice people making the comment that Tech only has a chance to win if they play mistake-free football. While that might be the case, I believe that the pressure is on the Broncos to perform in this one, and those jitters could cause some mistakes that turn the tide against the Hokies. I understand that Beamerball has been extensively explained and examined, but when I was perusing the 2010 Media Guide, I was really surprised at just how manyways Beamer's teams have managed to force mistakes out of their opponents in the past. In a noisy, hostile environment (like FedEx will be), the Broncos will face an uphill battle, but if they are prone to mistakes like so many of Virginia Tech's opponents have been in the past, it could be a long night for the boys in blue. Let's look at some raw numbers and break them down a little bit.

Late July isn't typically the most exciting time for college football headlines. Typically we're starting to see news out of conference media days, but the ACC's media event is still a few days away. Fortunately, there are always ignorant people on the internet to keep things interesting until teams reconvene in the next few weeks. Many of you know that I like to be critical to most people that are critical about my beloved Hokies, but I typically reserve that effort for the Heather Dinich-types of the world. However, whenever stupidity rears its ugly head, I certainly have a difficult time avoiding a good ol' verbal joust.

Under normal circumstances (read: any moderately interesting sports week), I would typically ignore things posted on Bleacher Report. Most sports fans that have spent at least twenty minutes looking for news on their favorite teams realize that b/r is the ultimate stage for the nation's mouth-breathers to post their opinions on sports. Unfortunately, this week is full of depressing Washington baseball and little else, so this gem has managed to get a little under my skin. Apparently some Boise State fans have gotten a little too big for their britches, so I'm here to set the record straight, FJM style (comments in italics are mine after the jump):

We're nearing the end of the summer doldrums, but we've still got a little time before the Hokies reconvene to prepare to take on the Boise State Broncos. As a way to prep and get excited, I'm going to look at the 2010 schedule and rate the games from a few different angles. Today, I'll look at my own excitement level for leading up to each game and determine the most fun I'll have with each matchup. I'm going to rank these 1-12 and I'll give them a tailgate rating as well.

1. Georgia Tech (Thursday, November 4th)- I know a lot of people are pumped about Boise State coming to the nation's capital, but in actuality, that game only has bearing on our national perception and national title hopes. Like a lot of Hokie fans, my expectations are a bit tempered considering we have a young defense and an unproven offensive line, so I'm looking at this game from an ACC standpoint. First of all, I really hate Georgia Tech. I hate Calvin Johnson, I hate Paul Johnson's gimmicky offense, and I hate Georgia Tech fans that consider Frank Beamer a joke because of his complaints about illegal chop blocks last season. The thing that would make me feel better than any this season would be stomping out the stupid bumble bees and reminding them who's boss in the ACC Coastal, especially on a Thursday night. Considering that I already have this penciled in as a long weekend off of work and our Hokies will be hitting their most important stretch of the season, I will certainly be jacked up for this one.

**Bonus- If you go over to the AJC's website, GT fans are using Al Groh's 3-4 defense as a major reason why they will WIN this game. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

Whew. That's better.

Tailgater's Rating: 5 Bourbon Shots

2. Boise State (Monday, September 6th)- I forfeited my Redskins season tickets this year, so this will be my only trek up to everyone's least favorite stadium in the land. While FedEx offers nothing as far as venue character, it does offer seating capacity that pushes toward the 100,000 range, and serves the region that holds the largest group of Virginia Tech alumni in the country.  I couldn't go the USC game in 2004, so I can't wait to see how loud Hokie Nation can make that place in person. Boise is considered to be one of the top three or four teams in the country and returns a group that's about as experienced as possible. This game should be HIGHLY competitive and have major national implications. On top of that, it will be great to tailgate with that many folks to kickoff the season AND to enjoy Dan Snyder's fancy new HD video screens. Tailgater's Rating: 4 1/2 Bourbon Shots

The Key Play is putting on a Hokie Memorabilia Contest to help us all through the doldrums of July. While none of my submissions are particularly unique, I still figured that they're worth posting. After the jump, check out what yours truly has to offer:

I've made my position known on the Virginia Tech football uniforms in the past. I liked the 2004 editions, and more specifically the 2006 all-maroon variation, but the 2008 re-vamped version just wasn't for me. Fortunately for my own tastes, it appears that the Hokies have formally ditched that uniform and decided to rock out in their maroon and white throwbacks for good in 2010. The university and the athletic department haven't commented on the team's apparel at this point, but there were rumors buzzing throughout the spring (specifically over at GC) that Tech would switch to the throwbacks for good this season. To take that rumor a step further, the bookstore is officially peddling these jerseys in full force on its website. There are nine versions of the throwback available for purchase- Logan Thomas, Tyrod Taylor, Dyrell Roberts, Eddie Whitley(?), DJ Coles(?!), Danny Coale, Darren Evans, Ryan Williams, and Barquell Rivers. Better yet, the bookstore is offering them all on sale for $51 currently, so you get a bit of a discount as well (down from $60). Apparently the athletic department wants our fans appropriately outfitted for the Boise State game, don't you think?

Some quick notes and thoughts on the jerseys: the white edition was first worn during the Furman game in 2008 while the maroon edition didn't show up until the Georgia Tech game last season. These uniforms are far more aesthetically pleasing than Nike's previous two uniforms (the "Pro Combat" look and the 2008 strange side color look) in my opinion. The shoulder piping is classic but not over-the-top, and the numbers are simple and clean. Furthermore, the fact that the players don't have names on the jersey screams "team-first" attitude. Personally, my favorite touch is the old 'T' over 'V' look on the collar that screams school history (and I'm a little biased...it's tattooed on my arm).

So, what do you guys think? Is it a good shift? Should we continue to throw money at Nike to give us 8,000 different jerseys to buy each year? Please chime in the comments below!

Well we've given this whole debate a pretty strong effort overall, but now it's time for me to weigh in with my plan to rework Division I football and basketball. Like the past two entries, my plan tends to focus more on football because the conference setup seems to be of greater concern in that area. Considering that basketball has a far more flexible scheduling process (and capacity), I'm assuming that will fall into place with my football plans.

Starting out, I tried to keep certain rivalries alive as well as tried to revisit a few old ones. I've broken the country down into four mega-conferences of sixteen teams with eight-team divisions and four-team "pods." Here's how the schedule will work out:

To continue FFODC's look at possible conference expansion, it's my turn to propose a solution to this great expansion debate. I have no problem with the current setup for basketball, so I let that stay the way it is. For football, I took a little different approach, and based my new conferences primarily on geography. Most rivalries were kept in order, with a couple being split into separate conferences (most notably Colorado/Colorado State, but they're already in separate conferences).

I created eight total conferences, six with 16 teams and two with 12 teams. Each team would play 12 games in a typical season with the 16-team "power" conferences playing the other seven teams in their division and three from the opposite division, plus two out-of-conference games. Of the three teams from the opposite division, one would be considered a "rival" and play every year while the other two would rotate every year. The two 12-team conferences would play all ten teams in the conference and two out-of-conference games.

Above is the map I've created showing the approximate geographic locations of my new conferences. A big hat tip goes to TJ Sport Source for their NCAA Football Map. One major note-I did all of these dots myself, so some might be a little bit off.

On Thursday, The Miz posted his Terp friend's NCAA expansion plan. Tonight, it's my turn. I did my best to keep rivalries together and tried even harder to align the conferences geographically. The topic, as stated earlier, is: If you had the opportunity to completely rework NCAA D-1 football and basketball, how would you organize conferences, set schedules and determine champions? I skipped the basketball equation, choosing to keep it the same. The only changes come in football and they come in the form of 8 completely new conferences of 16 teams each.

Today we have a pretty in-depth guest post from my buddy Chris Hurst, who is a 2007 alumnus of the University of Maryland. A few nights ago, the two of us got to discussion conference expansion, and we threw out a hypothetical situation. If you had the opportunity to completely rework NCAA D-1 football and basketball, how would you organize conferences, set schedules and determine champions? After a lengthy discussion, Chris did me one better and came up with this post. The rest of the FFODC will chime in with our individual plans later in the week, so please tune in. Since this is a hot-button issue, please feel free to chime in with what you guys would like to do if you had control!

With the Big Ten and SEC about pull the trigger on expansion, I took a look at what I would like to see if I was in charge of the NCAA Conference Realignment - starting from scratch.

In my view, the NCAA will be split into 4 16-team Superconferences.  Each conference will be broken up into 4 pods of 4 teams - this is where the rivalries are.  This also helps set up both football and basketball schedules.