Hokies beef up schedule with Nebraska

By Nate Crossman  |   Monday, June 05, 2006  |  Comments( 5 )

Virginia Tech Hokies
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Two programs that rose to prominence in the mid-1990s will meet again in the late 2000's.

The Virginia Tech Hokies and Nebraska Cornhuskers recently announced a home-and-home series for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The Hokies will travel to Lincoln in 2008 and the Cornhuskers will trek to Blacksburg the following year.

The two teams have never met during the regular season, but faced each other in the 1996 Orange Bowl, a pivotal moment for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers won the game 41-21, and would go on to win the 1997 national championship. Virginia Tech would play for a national championship in 1999, losing to Florida State.

Signing a deal with Nebraska solves an image problem for the Hokies that's been festering for a few years, which is they don't play a challenging-enough non-conference schedule. Two years ago they played a pair of top 10 teams in USC and West Virginia. But last year they played none (West Virginia was unranked at the time) and of their next eight non-conference opponents, only the LSU Tigers are a perennial top 25 team. Before it announced its home-and-home with the Cornhuskers, Virginia Tech had Bowling Green, Division I-AA Furman and East Carolina for 2008.

The Hokies are not alone in the easy non-conference schedule department, as most programs of their caliber pad their schedules with ones that are less established. Its supply and demand: The less-established programs are looking for "guarantee games," which are games where teams are guaranteed a lot of money to travel and, presumably lose. The more established teams are looking for easy games to give them a break from what is already a challenging conference slate.

The Hokies certainly have a tough conference schedule, playing in the ACC with the likes of Florida State and Miami. And now with LSU in two years and a Nebraska team that is on the rise after a lull in the early part of the decade, they have a non-conference line-up that should please their fans.

Get more Virginia Tech Hokies info at Realfootball365.com
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