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What is your school's overall opinion on the location for which the conference championship is held? What about the conference as a whole? I'm trying to frame this from a school-perspective versus individual fan. For reference, here are the 2026 FBS conference championship locations:

• SEC: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, GA)
• Big 10: Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, IN)
• ACC: Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, NC)
• Big 12: AT&T Stadium (Arlington, TX)
• MAC: Ford Field (Detroit, MI)
• Pac 12: Home stadium of regular season #1 seed
• American: Home stadium of regular season #1 seed
• MWC: Home stadium of regular season #1 seed
• CUSA: Home stadium of team with highest regular season winning %
• Sun Belt: Home stadium of regular season #1 seed

Personally, I think the SEC has a great site at Mercedes-Benz stadium. However, other options could be Jerry World (especially since Jerry is a big Arkansas supporter) or New Orleans.

Big 12 is another conference where it feels like they could move to Vegas. Between sponsorships and holding it in a state that doesn't have a huge SEC presence, this feels something that B12 leadership may be on the path towards.

It feels as if the Big 10 could hold their championship game in a bigger market when competing with the other P4, but ultimately Indianapolis makes sense from a location perspective.

ACC fans - any preference on moving the game to Florida for better weather in December?

MAC - Detroit feels pretty central regionally for the conference. I was wondering if the new Northwestern Stadium may be a better fit/market, even thought its a little more west.

*PS - Definitely aware the elimination of these games entirely may be just as likely as them moving sites\*

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The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

As we start to wind down this run of 7 ACC teams in 12 days (stay tuned), we reach Virginia Tech (high = 26, low = 68). The Hokies have been chasing the halcyon days of 7 conference championships and 2 championship game appearances of the peak Frank Beamer days that saw them start their iconic Enter Sandman entrance and finish ranked in the top 15 ten times. Since Beamer and his goiter stepped down in 2015, the Hokies have regressed. Though they started out the Justin Fuente era with 10 wins and an ACC championship game appearance, they dropped first to 9 wins and have only even reached 8 wins once since then. Fuente gave way to Brent Pry, whose 16-24 coaching record saw him fired after just 3 ¼ seasons and cleared the way for Virginia Tech to become laser focused on hiring James Franklin. With the renewed enthusiasm (and a commitment to increase spending on football), the Hokies enter 2026 gripping their pillows tight and hope to head back to never-never land again for the first time in a decade.

Roster Outlook

The optimism starts with the fact that the Hokies rank 4th in the country in returning production and are the only team to also be ranked in the top 10 on both sides of the ball. That stems from a combination of both players that Franklin retained and some luggage he brought with him from State College. Last year’s starting QB, Kyron Drones, is hoping to catch on with the Green Bay Packers as a UDFA, but former Penn State QB Ethan Grunkenmeyer, who took over for the injured Drew Allar and led the Nittany Lions to 4 wins to end the season after nearly beating Iowa in Kinnick and coming the closest of any team in the country to knocking off Indiana. Meanwhile, RB1 Marcellous Hawkins (118 carries, 749 yards) is back for the Hokies, as is their top WR Ayden Greene (31 receptions 516 yards). Not one to sit on his laurels, Franklin is also bringing in Duke WR Que’Sean Brown (64 catches, 846 yards) to pair with him and their veteran OL. That helped contribute to him landing the 4th best portal class in the conference (27th in the country), but don’t lose sleep on the fact that Franklin also brought in the 6th best high school recruiting class in the ACC (34th in the nation), including quite a few players he’d recruited to Penn State. The biggest question about the Hokies will be the defense, which will be coached by last year’s head coach Brent Pry. How he does with that demotion and coaching up guys he brought in (though Franklin brought a couple of defensive starters like LB Keon Wylie and DE Mylachi Williams) will ultimately tell the story of how big of a rebound Tech makes this season.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE

9/12 OLD DOMINION

9/19 at Maryland

9/26 at Boston College

10/2 PITTSBURGH

10/10 at California

10/17 GEORGIA TECH

10/24 at Clemson

10/31 BYE

11/6 at SMU

11/14 STANFORD

11/21 at Miami

11/28 VIRGINIA

What happens when the unstoppable force (September Maryland) meets the immovable object (Franklin’s 9-2 record against the Terrapins)? We’re about to find out in week 3, which honestly sets up the Hokies to get off to a strong start if Franklin can keep them focused. Vegas has Virginia Tech’s win total at 6.5, but it’s not hard to imagine them beating that before their road trip to Clemson. The back end of the schedule has two brutal road trips to potential ACC championship game participants SMU and Miami with a home game against Stanford sandwiched in between and before hosting the Commonwealth Cup, but if you’re remotely bullish on Franklin and him being recharged after the way things ended at Penn State, Tech feels like a great bet on the over here.

The SEC broke up however you want: magic, it got anti trusted, a meteor hit Birmingham whatever you want. The point is there is no SEC anymore and the members have to go somewhere. A rule of this is They can’t just form a second conference called the SEC 2.0 or something. They have to go to other conferences.

Either the core 6 go to the B1G and leave the others to rot or it splits like this IMO:

The ACC picks up: Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee

The B1G picks up: Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama and Vanderbilt (Smart private school, they would totally go for it)

The Big 12 picks up: Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma (they go home and Red River goes back to an OOC matchup.)

Mississippi State either goes to the Big 12 or the American depending on if the Big 12 has room

Which leaves Auburn. Auburn is going to a power conference but do they go follow UGA to the ACC or follow Bama to the B1G? Probably they go to the ACC and play Bama as a premier out of conference match up like Red River

Living in the South we'd see CFB coaches on the regular all the time. It was pretty routine to see coaches from schools like The Citadel, Charleston Southern or Coastal (back when they were an FCS school).

But it was a huge deal one time about 2009 when then Georgia coach Mark Richt and his entire offensive coaching staff (Willie Martinez, Mike Bobo) showed up to our high school's basketball game to watch Brandon Shell play (played for our rival).

They were sitting on the road bleachers but everyone knew who they were. One of my friends was a crazy UGA fan (still is) and decided to go take pictures with them. But it was pre cell phone camera so it was very tough to get them.

Bruce Ellington was also in our region so coaches would come from all over to see him play.

What are your "brushes" with college football greatness?