Virginia Tech Football: The Crazy Football Weekend and What It Means for Tech

For Hokie fans, the football weekend started on Thursday for the second weekend in a row. Thursday brought the result all Tech fans wanted, a victory. Ugly as it may have been, a win is still a win and no win should be taken for granted at this point in the season.

Friday, like most Fridays in the college football world, was supposed to be a day with no worthwhile matchups where a less interesting game can steal a primetime slot it would otherwise never earn.

However, Iowa State didn't like that plan and by beating Oklahoma State ensured that the BCS title game would not feature two undefeated teams (sorry, Houston, not this year). Even through all this chaos, the weekend had just begun.

First, Clemson got absolutely throttled by an NC State team desperate for a bowl bid. Then, Virginia squeaked one out in Tallahassee by the skin of their teeth. Oregon then failed to complete a comeback against USC and Oklahoma fell to Baylor for the first time in 21 games.

Meanwhile, Hokie fans got to sit back and watch the craziest weekend in college football this season unfold in front of their eyes. The ACC implications of this weekend were monumental as the Virginia Tech-Virginia matchup next weekend means more than bragging rights for the first time since the Chris Long era thanks to a last second missed field goal by Florida State.

The winner will await a Clemson team that will no longer be in the Top 10, which is a real shame for the ACC as a Clemson-Virginia Tech rematch could have possibly been a clash of Top Five teams.

Virginia will likely claim a spot in the Top 25 for the first time under Mike London and Virginia Tech could be ranked anywhere between fourth and sixth in the BCS Standings.

Should the Hokies pass Oklahoma State and stay ahead of a Stanford team that won a game in nearly identical fashion to Virginia Tech this weekend, they would be the highest ranked team not in the SEC West. With two games remaining against opponents that are likely to be ranked, Virginia Tech is still very much alive in the race for the BCS title.

However, the real story, and the only one Hokie fans should be paying any attention to, is the stage that has been set for this Saturday. Everyone around the state knew Mike London had Virginia on the rise but most people, including a lot of the Cavalier faithful, thought they were still not quite at a level to compete with the Hokies.

That all has a chance to change this weekend and nothing would make a statement of arrival quite like an appearance in the ACC Championship Game. Virginia has only beat Tech once since 1998 and even that was eight years ago.

That's a lot of frustration for Cavalier fans, players, and coaches which could all be forgotten with a victory at home over a Top Four (Coaches' poll) Hokies team.

Tickets for this game are more difficult to find than ever before and a Scott Stadium crowd that is usually half-and-half may actually have more orange and blue than orange and maroon this year.

The stakes are higher than ever for both football teams this year. Virginia has a chance to bring home the Commonwealth Cup for the first time since 2003, announce themselves on the national stage and play for their first ACC title since the pre-expansion era.

For Virginia Tech, a win would keep the Cavaliers at bay for another year, give the Hokies another shot at Clemson and possibly springboard them into a national title scenario. If Tech loses, they are no longer the dominant team in the state and must watch Virginia play for a conference championship as they settle for a likely berth in the Sun or Chick-Fil-A Bowl.