Passed on to me from a friend...
Charlotte Observer
Thu, Nov. 03, 2005
IN MY OPINION / TOM SORENSEN
Hokie's not a mystery anymore
Remember when folks used to ask what a Hokie was? By now, everybody knows. A Hokie is a guy who plays for the football team that beats yours.
Virginia Tech has been a member of the ACC only two seasons, but anybody who cares about ACC football ought to pause --right now -- to salute all things Hokie.
Consider that the biggest game in college football Saturday will be played not in Austin, Texas, or Los Angeles, not in Lincoln, Nebraska or Norman, Okla., not in Columbus, Ohio or Ann Arbor, Mich., not in Baton Rouge, La., or Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Knoxville, Tenn., Gainesville, Fla., or any other 'ville.
The biggest game will be played 175 miles north of Charlotte in Blacksburg, Va., where No. 5 Miami will play No. 3 Virginia Tech.
It's easy to criticize North Carolina, Clemson and N.C. State for failing to establish a superior program. But most schools fail to consistently crack the Top 25. Most schools struggle to win enough to make a peripheral bowl. Most schools think winning seven games is a big deal.
The Hokies already have won eight. They have been ranked in the top 10 at some point in 10 of the past 12 seasons, and have played in a bowl 12 straight seasons. In their ACC debut in 2004, a season in which the Hokies should have been depleted and were supposed to be down, they won the conference championship.
When the ACC decided to expand two years ago, it went after Miami and Boston College. The Hokies, who desperately wanted to be included, went after the ACC.
But they were up against it. Miami could deliver the south Florida TV market, and Boston College might deliver Boston. The Greater Blacksburg Market did not enthrall the ACC, not even when it was expanded to include Radford, Roanoke and Ripplemead.
Miami and Boston College were promoted from the Big East, and in an utterly embarrassing response, the other football playing Big East schools -- Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia and, yes, Virginia Tech -- sued the ACC.
As litigious a society as we are, as willing as we are to sue at the drop of a hat, or because of a drop of a hat -- the hat hit my foot, therefore I'm suing -- the lawsuit was frivolous and absurd.
The Hokies have not made a bad move since. When the ACC finally decided to accept Virginia Tech, it got a market that included Blacksburg, Bedford, Bent Mountain, Barren Springs, Bland, Buchanan, Blue Ridge and Barbours Creek -- and a great deal.
The conference needed another school at which football mattered. If you believe the core of the conference is the Carolinas, it was important to annex a school from the neighborhood -- Virginia Tech is only a three-hour drive --that would compete for the national championship.
If you have never experienced big-time college football, spend a football Friday or a Saturday in Blacksburg. Eat, drink, laugh, and marvel at the way the team and the town come together.
What's a Hokie?
Buddy, you will know. |
