SP+ Predicts Virginia Tech vs Vanderbilt Final Score

Will Virginia Tech defeat Vanderbilt on Saturday?

Dec 27, 2023; Annapolis, MD, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones (1) throws to tight end Harrison Saint Germain (87) for a second quarter touchdown against the Tulane Green Wave at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports | Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Game week is finally here for Virginia Tech and they will be traveling to Nashville, TN to face Vanderbilt. It is the start of a highly anticipated season for the Hokies and they are hoping to contend for an ACC Championship, but they need to start the year off with a win over Vanderbilt. At most Sportsbooks, Virginia Tech is a near two-touchdown favorite coming into this game and Bill Connelly's SP+ is in line with that projected margin.

SP+ is projecting Virginia Tech to win this game by a score of 36-21 and it gives the Hokies and 81% chance to beat Vanderbilt. It has them covering the spread, but just slightly.

🥳🏈 WEEK 1 SP+ PICKS 🏈🥳

Dawgs 36, Clemson 20
Irish 29, A&M 27
Florida 30.1, Miami 29.8!
PSU 34, WVU 20
Colorado 34, NDSU 32
Okla St 38, SDSU 24
Mizzou 58, Murray St 1, lol
LSU 41, USC 31
FSU 36, BC 16

(Yes, Wk0 results taken into account)https://t.co/w7ALlZmjBl pic.twitter.com/kdsgr1mSlY

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 26, 2024

What exactly is SP+? Here is how Connelly himself describes it:

"As always, these are based on three primary factors: returning production (final rankings for which you can find at the bottom of this piece), recent recruiting and recent history. How good have you been recently? Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don't have coming back? That's loosely what we ask when we're setting expectations for a team; it's also what these projections attempt to do objectively.

As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."

With Virginia Tech being one of the most experienced teams in the country, I expect them to hit the ground running on Saturday and be clicking like they were at the end of the year last season.

Kickoff between Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt will be at 12:00 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.