Is Virginia Tech Scheduling Too Many FCS Opponents?

Virginia Tech's FCS scheduling provides flexibility and protects home dates, but does an extra game at Lane Stadium always feel like a true seventh home game?

Virginia Tech Athletics

Virginia Tech football officially completed another piece of its future scheduling puzzle Friday morning, announcing that Gardner-Webb will visit Lane Stadium to open the 2028 season.

The matchup, scheduled for Aug. 26, will be the first-ever meeting between Virginia Tech and Gardner-Webb. It will also give the Hokies seven home games in 2028, something Virginia Tech Athletics understandably highlighted when announcing the matchup. I understand the reasoning, but I'm not sure I love the result.

Gardner-Webb will become the third consecutive FCS opponent Virginia Tech is scheduled to open a season against, following VMI in 2026 and The Citadel in 2027. The Hokies have also won 13 consecutive games against FCS opponents entering this season, with their two most recent victories coming against Wofford. There's certainly a legitimate argument for continuing to schedule these games.

Virginia Tech's 2028 non-conference schedule already includes home games against Liberty and Notre Dame, while the ACC's nine-game conference schedule will give the Hokies five league road games that season. Adding Gardner-Webb guarantees another game at Lane Stadium and gets Virginia Tech to seven home dates instead of forcing the program to search for another home-and-home series that could eventually send it on the road or forcing it to jump into a sneakily difficult matchup.

We've seen what those games can become. You give up a home date, travel into an environment where the opposing fan base views Virginia Tech as one of the biggest games on its schedule and take on significantly more risk than you'd probably like without receiving much national credit for winning.

There is a reason major programs have increasingly tried to protect home inventory.

The opportunity to add home games, create additional revenue and maintain more scheduling flexibility played into it for Virginia Tech when it canceled portions of its future series against Maryland earlier this year. From a business and roster-management perspective, it's difficult to argue against that philosophy.

If the choice is Gardner-Webb at Lane Stadium or an unnecessary road game against a G6 opponent, I'll take Gardner-Webb.

Virginia Tech Athletics can technically advertise seven home games in 2028, and that is objectively better than six. Fans buying season tickets receive another Saturday at Lane Stadium, Blacksburg businesses receive another football weekend and the athletic department receives another home game's worth of revenue.

But is Gardner-Webb what people mean when they talk about wanting a seventh home game?

There's a difference between another meaningful game at Lane Stadium and simply another game being played there as a gear-up for the true portion of the season. An FCS matchup, especially for a program with Virginia Tech's resources, should be one of the most comfortable games on the schedule. That's part of why you schedule it. The Hokies get an opportunity to work through early-season mistakes, younger players can potentially receive meaningful snaps and Virginia Tech doesn't have to expose itself to the same level of risk it would against another FBS opponent.

All of that has value, but to me, it also makes the game feel more like a display and a padding than a true contest. That doesn't necessarily mean the game carries the same appeal as Virginia Tech's other home matchups.

A seventh game at Lane Stadium certainly has value, but an FCS opponent is naturally going to generate a different level of anticipation than an ACC matchup or a notable non-conference opponent. If Virginia Tech is where James Franklin hopes to have the program by 2028, the expectation in a game like this will also be considerably different.

The Hokies won't simply be expected to win. They'll be expected to handle the matchup comfortably.

And to be clear, I don't think scheduling one FCS opponent every season is some massive problem. With nine ACC games, Notre Dame on the schedule in 2028 and Liberty also coming to Blacksburg, Virginia Tech doesn't need to create the most difficult non-conference schedule imaginable just to satisfy people who want better matchups.

Give me an FBS opponent willing to play a one-off game in Blacksburg, or find ways to structure series where Virginia Tech receives favorable home inventory without constantly sacrificing games elsewhere. Those opportunities obviously aren't always available, which is why an FCS opponent becomes the easiest solution.

That's probably the best way I can describe it.

It makes financial sense, scheduling sense and competitive sense, particularly if the alternative requires Virginia Tech to unnecessarily travel to another G6 stadium.

But something can make sense without being particularly appealing.

Virginia Tech will presumably have seven home games in 2028 on paper at least. Whether fans view an FCS school as a true seventh is a different question.

On paper, at least.

Whether fans really view Gardner-Webb as the seventh one is a different question.