Virginia Tech Football: Possible Opponents to Fill the Void in 2012

It's finally bye week for the 2011 Virginia Tech Hokies so why not take a glance forward at the 2012 version of the orange and maroon? It was announced earlier this year that the Hokies would take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in Atlanta to kick off the 2013 season. However, to accommodate this addition, East Carolina had to move their 2012 and 2013 games back, leaving an empty slot for next year.

East Carolina was scheduled to be a home game in 2012 and the Hokies are already scheduled to play at Pittsburgh and against Cincinnati on a neutral field, leaving Virginia Tech with only five home games.

Therefore, it is safe to assume that even Jim Weaver won't schedule another game away from Lane Stadium for 2012. This means you can probably expect to see an FCS opponent fill this last spot, but I'll entertain a couple other options which, although long shots, would certainly make a splash in the college football world.

This article is merely speculative and is by no means meant to suggest exactly who Jim Weaver will schedule, but it's the bye week so we might as well have a little fun with this.

Here are the potential opponents Tech fans might be seeing walk out of the South End Zone tunnel come next September.

James Madison

Virginia Tech fans will show a lot of emotions towards James Madison University, for reasons that are all too obvious.

Playing this game to open the season would be a lot of fun for Hokie fans. Heck, this game was already a lot of fun until the game of which we shall not speak. The two schools are separated by a mere two hours on I-81 and there are a lot of Hokies out there who would love to finally hear their JMU friends stop yapping about 2010.

James Madison runs a lot of shotgun read option plays which would help the Hokies immensely if they could practice against it, as they take on Cincinnati and Clemson, both shotgun spread teams, away from home in 2012.

William and Mary

William and Mary, while similar as a football program to JMU, provides a far less interesting matchup for the Hokies from a fan's standpoint.

William and Mary is a small school located roughly four hours from Blacksburg and has proven to be little competition for Virginia Tech in the past.

The Tribe are scheduled to play the Hokies in 2014 but it is very possible that William and Mary could be bribed into playing the game next year.

Marshall

The Thundering Herd have been no stranger to Virginia Tech lately. Tech played at Marshall this year and hosted in 2009. This is probably the most likely FBS opponent to round out the schedule as Tech is slated to host Marshall in 2013 so the game could easily be bumped up a year since there are no other planned contests between the schools.

Hokie fans seem to enjoy playing the Herd for multiple reasons, namely the two universities' fans share a common hatred of WVU. The schools are only three hours apart and fans from both schools tend to enjoy each other's company. Turns out the saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies even to college football.

Ohio State

This is another possible reschedule as Virginia Tech is scheduled to host the Buckeyes in 2015 following a trip to Columbus in 2014. Chances are this won't happen due to the rapid conference shuffling that's going on, which could completely reset future schedules for both schools.

You could substitute Wisconsin into this scenario as well, as Tech is scheduled to play the Badgers in 2016 and 2017.

Either Big 10—or is it 12?—school would make an interesting matchup for the Hokies and there were nothing but rave reviews for the last Big 10 school that visited Blacksburg (even though they were Big 12 at the time). Hokie and Husker fans had an amazing appreciation for each other and many Tech fans wanted to extend the Nebraska series past 2009.

Blacksburg shares a lot of socio-economic features with the mid west, so either Ohio State or Wisconsin could be a great matchup, just not a likely one.

Kansas State

Virginia Tech was scheduled to play Kansas State in 2014 and 2016, but last September the series got cancelled. With voids in Tech's schedule in 2012 and 2014, this could be a possibility.

Series do not very often get brought back to life after cancellation, but hey, this has as good a chance as any and I don't want to flood you with possible FCS teams to yawn about.

The Hokies haven't faced the Wildcats since 1968 but Tech fans certainly still have a bitter taste in their mouths from the last time they faced a team from the same state.

From a fan's standpoint, this should be similar to the Big 10 schools mentioned previously, good news for the tailgaters out there.

West Virginia

Okay, I'll level with you here, this one has about as much of a chance of happening as I do of marrying Kim Kardashian, but in the words of Lloyd Christmas, "So you're saying there's a chance?"

While we know this is not going to happen, especially next year, it's still fun to talk about just because of the hatred the two schools have for each other. WVU hates Tech for leaving the Big East and Tech hates WVU for throwing beer bottles at their fans and players.

These two schools used to play each other every year until Jim Weaver decided after Tech's move to the ACC that it was in the best interest of the school to discontinue the rivalry.

Some Hokie fans want to renew this rivalry as soon as possible while others would rather never play WVU again. Only time will tell.