SB Nation College Football & Basketball Rivalry Survey Results

College sports are returning? Maybe, maybe not. Some smaller conferences look likely to shift fall sports into the spring, while the Big Ten and the PAC-12 have already announced plans to only play football against conference opponents. The ACC should have an announcement out by the end of the month, but even that, like everything, is scheduled to change with each passing week.

In the meantime, SB Nation ran a poll the other week asking fans of each school to vote on who is their school’s biggest football and basketball rival, plus a few national questions. Here are the results from the Virginia Tech poll, how some of our rivals viewed the Hokies in this regard, and the national opinion on the best rivalries in college sports.

Hokies Football

With around 90% of the votes, Virginia is clearly, and unsurprisingly, Tech’s biggest football rival. However, about 10% of people voted for Miami, which calls back to the two schools’ rivalry from the Big East days that has now traveled over into the ACC.

Hokies Basketball

Again no surprise here, UVA tops the votes. However, this time the Duke Blue Devils are the 2nd place school after a series of entertaining and close matches with VT since we joined the ACC.

What our rivals said?

Now a look at what some of Tech’s key rivals from today and yesteryear said (as it pertains to the Hokies).

• UVA: As you’d imagine Virginia Tech topped the Cav’s football and basketball rivalry votes, with ~90% in football and ~35% in basketball (UNC & Duke also received significant votes in basketball).
• Miami: Florida State topped the results for football, with nothing of note going to the Hokies. There were no basketball results for the Hurricanes.
• UNC: Of course Duke was the basketball rivalry winner (more on that later), but VT came in 4th for Tar Heel fans when it comes to their biggest football rival.
• West Virginia: Back in the Big East days the Hokies would have easily been included on the poll for WVU fans, but those days are long gone as the two schools have entered new eras in new conferences.

National Questions

The best rivalry in college football is mostly a partisan question based on school allegiance or conference loyalty. All five of the top combos are quality match-ups, but it was a bit surprising to see the classic Army v. Navy game edge out Alabama and Auburn.

For college basketball was there really any surprise what the results would be? Duke vs. North Carolina is the game of the season when it comes to neutrals and the national audience.

So there you have the SB Nation rivalry poll results from Virginia Tech voters, related rivals, and the national questions. Any surprises there?