There's been several comments about Coach Pete needing to "schedule better" early in the year. Certainly, the current VT Strength of Schedule of 75 isn't doing the Hokies any favors in the RPI computations. But it's easy to Monday morning quarterback, so let's look at fact instead of just throwing the "they played too many weak teams" comments out there. The early season Clearwater tournament is an excellent way to get some high RPI games early, BUT, it's an Invitational tournament that generally rotates ACC schools (NC State and Duke played in it this past year and FSU is a staple for some reason). Consequently, VT has to generally schedule early season events held by southern schools. This year, VT played in events held by South Carolina, Georgia, and Auburn, two of which made it to the Super Regionals last year. In addition, they agreed to play in an event hosted by Charlotte and, of course, hosted their own event in Salem. Of the 25 games that VT was scheduled to play before the start of conference play, 12 of them were against teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. Only one team VT (Bryant) had an RPI higher than 150 last year. It was thought by many that it was a fair, tough schedule that would help calculate a solid strength of schedule for RPI purposes. A similar scheduling philosophy in 2025 resulted in an SOS of 31. Unfortunately for VT, almost every team that VT played early season underperformed versus last year. Only four of those teams (five games) have improved their RPI from last year (ironically Bryant is one of them). Binghampton, Villanova, and Elon (five games total) have dropped their RPI over 100 spots from last season. OUCH! VT has ended up playing ten games against teams with RPIs worse that 150 and that is brutal for SOS and RPI calculations. So while it's easy to criticize the scheduling, it's also hard to predict that VT's opponents would have nosedived from last year. Here's a chart outlining last year's results versus this year's