So is Virginia Tech athletics overated?

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia I was constantly reminded by friends, radio hosts, and TV reporters, that Virginia Tech was and is one of the top athletic programs in college sports. I am biased because I am a diehard Virginia fan, but I do not understand why Virginia Tech gets so much attention when they have not even won a national championship in their two main sports in almost 20 years .

 The football program at VT has come a long way since its national debut in the Sugar Bowl in 1995. However, they have not lived up to hype! First, they are 1 in 5 in the Bowl Championship Series. Second, they have never won a national championship. Yes, Virginia Tech has won a lot of ACC Championships, and have gone to some big BCS ball games, but the ACC is a basketball conference, not a football conference. Another fun fact is that Virginia Tech football has never been number one in the country in the final college football rankings.   After knowing these facts, does Virginia Tech deserve to be called an elite program?

As for their second big program, the Virginia Tech basket ball team, they have also been inconsistent for many years.  Virginia Tech, to their credit, has won two national championships in the NIT (in 1973 and 1995) but the NIT tournament hasn’t been relevant for quite a long time. That leads me to the NCAA tournament where championships DO matter, and the Virginia Tech Hokies have not been in the NCAA basketball tournament since 2007. Fans, coaches and players feel like they have earned a right to be in the NCAA tournament because they’re always on the bubble.  But critics say they haven’t had enough good conference wins or a good non-conference schedule to help their cause in the end to get them in. One of the basketball program’s biggest problems is also that they cannot compete on the level that their football team competes when it comes to recruiting athletes. They have had a few good players that have helped elevate their program, but they haven’t had enough.

Now that I’ve talked about both programs I hope you see that V-Tech is not as great as they perceive themselves to be.