This week’s hit and miss both revolve around the beloved (by most folks around here) Virginia Tech Hokies. Let me first say that, while I don’t love VT football (please, no hate letters), I love college football. To me, there’s just nothing like it. Gameday in an on-campus stadium, the tailgating, the traditions, the passion you have for your favorite team, it makes fall my favorite season.

I grew up in Southeastern Conference country and haven’t quite adapted to Atlantic Coast Conference football. So I generally catch every game that my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide plays on TV and have passed on free tickets to Tech in order to watch Alabama on TV. Hey, that’s the sign of a true fan, right? You Tech fans would do the same if you lived in Tuscaloosa.

But I would love to see Tech play in person (as long as it doesn’t conflict with an Alabama game), and maybe, just maybe next year I will be lucky enough to see both play—each other.

While apparently not set in stone, it seems that discussions are underway for an Alabama-Virginia Tech game on Sept. 5, 2009, to be played in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. That, in my opinion, would be a major hit. While neutral-site games don’t thrill me as much as a home-and-home swap (such as the two-game series VT has with Nebraska this year and next), I would much rather Alabama play Virginia Tech, and vice versa, than the alternatives. I mean how much excitement can be generated by a Virginia Tech-Cincinnati season opener (originally scheduled in 2009)?

As mentioned, I have to give the Hokies a lot of credit, too, for scheduling the two game series with Nebraska. That’s definitely a hit. A cross-sectional game between two football powers is so much more exciting than a routine home game against some cream puff.

And speaking of cream puffs, I hate those games! It’s definitely a miss when a school like Virginia Tech opens its season against Furman. Now, Furman is a good team in its division. But that’s exactly the point. Why is a team like Tech stepping down to play a lower-division school? And then there’s Western Kentucky on the Hokie schedule for Oct. 4. And remember William & Mary and Ohio from last year? Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong, while it seems like I’m singling out Virginia Tech, I know that most football powers schedule a few easy games. Alabama plays Western Kentucky, too, this season not to mention Tulane and (oh my God, really?) Arkansas State. Who wants to pay the high cost of a ticket to watch your team demolish a team it has no right playing?

So to Virginia Tech (and all college football powers), step up and play some real competition and give the fans the games they want to see. And for Virginia Tech and Alabama, please get the 2009 game against each other set in stone!!

Tim W. Jackson fondly remembers being in New Orleans as the Crimson Tide beat Miami for the national championship on Jan. 1, 1993.