VT football is being substantially artificially propped by Enter Sandman, and the hoopla of the early game festivities. There is a large amount of non and casual football "fans" that are mostly coming for the excitement of a few minutes of a non-football spectacle. I don't begrudge VT marketing from taking advantage of it to the hilt- but it is a pretty sad indictment of how badly, how far, and how long the program has continued to fall.

Was in 132 last night and good seats up about 30 rows from field level. Felt the same thing, what happen to the old key chain noise on 3rd down and people standing more. It blew me away as well there was more noise during songs playing than watching the game. Did like the students stayed but they have not been exposed to that defensive, special teams mentality of VA Tech so they get soft as fan base. Attendance was very good and beautiful and night. Thought the team looked coached up okay and saw some adjustments. The stat board is very weird Vandy QB only threw like 18 or 19 passes but efficiency and chunk plays seemed to just crush Tech. Team did remind me of some FCS builds and just not those 3 or 4 players on both sides of the ball that can balance or help the lines. The offensive line depth is horrible which honestly has been my biggest fear for this team for last 4 years, have a couple really good ones but depth and balance are lacking. Drones need to be replaced honestly and team needs to move forward if we lose one of the next 4 games. Drones can get going for 3 or 4 games but it was obvious the line depth and mentality got hammered in the second half. No one knows how to explain that second half and the team has some okay athletes, look like a very good second unit honestly and need more around them. We seem to lack some height and size and can cause many match up problems and when I look at the game, it seems Vandy found the right mix and just man handled Tech the second half. Thought Tech was faster but Vandy was bigger. Honestly Tech could look at Vandy and say we are Vandy of a decade ago at times and what did they do. I am very surprised how we have let the lines on both sides become so down in depth and talent. There are some decent athletes and football players but are they top tier D1?

cell phones. Cell phones are a cancer on what used to be "the fan experience"(tm) at Tech. Everyone has their phones out. --Get off my lawn-- (but I'm right)

Going for us.

idea what rooting for a winning team is like.

Dancing and mugging for the camera while the team burns.

Paraphrasing: "How did you prepare the team for this environment?" "We see this every week. It ain't no big deal"

We have an SEC environment. We just don't have an SEC product.

There seemed to be very little buzz. We drove into town with almost no waiting in traffic and parked in a half full numbered lot. Walking to the stadium, there was practically no tailgating. Nobody seemed excited. So weird. The vibe was more “let’s get this over with” than anything.

…the atmosphere there was better than what you describe and I’m not sure this tech squad could compete at the top of the FCS level. That is tough to digest.

Fargo Dome. Idaho was smart to switch back to the FCS subdivisions because they should have never left the Big Sky in the first place.

I don't think the fanbase truly wants to try to fund a professional football team as is required to compete at the FBS level, nor do I think VT could raise enough money to keep up with the competition. So I believe there are two realistic options: 1) maintain the status quo and essentially light money on fire and get zero results, or 2) drop down to FCS.

FCS. That is where we belong with schools like WVU, NCSU, GT, Pitt, Syracuse, BC, Cinn, Marshall, ECU, JMU etc etc etc.

subdivisions in DI football. Particularly if we see more smaller DI schools either drop football or drop down to either DII or DIII (i.e. what St Francis (PA) recently announced).

moving up. The base of the new subdivision would be the current/recent G5 schools.

DI-FCS may not have enough participating teams to justify keeping it alive. At least more DI-FCS schools have started questioning whether they want to continue sponsor DI football or even remain in DI athletics after the House settlement. Some schools have chosen to drop down to a lower NCAA division level. While schools like St. Francis (NY) chose to discontinue their entire athletic department. To my knowledge St. Francis (NY) has become the second DI school to make that decision with NE Illinois deciding to do it in either the '90s or early '00s. Going forward we may see more schools opt to go that route for various reasons. Also, I wouldn't expect there are too many DII and/or DIII schools itching to make the jump up to DI now because of the sudden increase in participation cost.

sports VT currently sponsors. At least I assume VT will be forced to leave the ACC and join another another conference.

That's not an answer.

current levels. FWIW St. Francis (PA) decided last fiscal year that it was switching from DI to DIII for all athletics. A few years ago Idaho decided to switch from DI-FBS back to DI-FCS in football and rejoined the Big Sky. St. Francis (NY) decided to discontinue its entire athletic department becoming the only second DI school (to my knowledge) to make that decision. Going forward, we may see more schools, including VT, make these difficult decisions for various reasons.