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News With Commentary by TSL Staff Friday, July 19, 2002 The Week in Review Noteworthy news items from this week, as the start of football practice approaches... Pittsburgh and Syracuse to Flip-Flop on Hokie Schedule: The Big East Conference announced some long-term football schedule changes. With Temple's exit and UConn's entrance into the league scheduled for 2005, the league took the opportunity to shuffle the schedules around and try to eliminate some inequities in scheduling. Primarily, the league was looking to break up a schedule setup that had Tech hosting Syracuse and Miami in the same season; had Syracuse hosting Tech and Miami in the same season; and, probably worst of all, sent Pittsburgh on the road to Miami, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech in the same season. For the Hokies, the changes mean that starting in 2005, in odd years, Virginia Tech will host Boston College, Pittsburgh and Miami (instead of the current odd-year rotation of BC, Syracuse, and Miami). In even years, beginning in 2006, the Hokies will host UConn, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia (instead of the current rotation of Rutgers, Temple, Pitt, and West Virginia). To make the switch, the Hokies will host Pittsburgh two consecutive years (2004 and 2005 -- this is good for Tech) and will travel to Syracuse two consecutive years (2004 and 2005 -- this is bad for Tech). This will break up the VT/Miami rotation for Syracuse. Pitt will still host/travel to Syracuse and Miami in the same season, but will now do the opposite with Virginia Tech, instead of all three teams being together in their home/road rotation. These changes have been incorporated into TechSideline.com's Future Football Schedules Page. Hokies Give 2,300 More Tickets to LSU: The LSU athletic department announced this week that Virginia Tech increased LSU's ticket allotment for this year's game from 4,000 to 6,300 tickets, meaning that more Tiger fans will be able to make the trip to Blacksburg. While this news is bad for Hokie fans (it means fewer prospective tickets for VT fans), it's not a total loss for Tech. One argument that "big name" teams have used to avoid scheduling a home-and-home series with Tech (other than the obvious "we're scared to") is that the Hokies, in the past, have not been able to match traveling ticket allotments with teams with larger stadiums. That's a flimsy argument, but it has been used against Tech. Now, after the LSU game, the Hokies will be able to point to an instance where they allotted a healthy 6,300 tickets to a road team with a large stadium. This doesn't mean that Penn State, Michigan, and Tennessee will suddenly flock to play the Hokies, but every little bit helps. Virginia Tech TV Games: at this point the Hokies have six games that will be played on TV:
This information is reflected in the football schedules that appear in various places on the TSL web site. Big East Media Day Next Week: The Big East will kick off the football season with its annual Big East Media Day next week, on Wednesday, July 24th. That event is headlined by the media predictions for where teams will finish in the conference. Media day usually starts the ball rolling on preseason coverage, as teams report to practice shortly thereafter. The Hokies will reportedly take Grant Noel, Lee Suggs and Willie Pile as their player representatives to BE Media Day. On Tuesday, July 30th, the Virginia Tech true freshmen report for workouts, and on Friday, the upperclassmen will filter in. On Saturday, August 3rd, the Hokies hold Virginia Tech's media day. The following day, on Sunday, August 4th, they start practice.
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