College Football: 25 most underappreciated team rivalries of all time

24. Miami Hurricanes vs. Virginia Tech Hokies

Many of the rivalries that are featured on this list are, despite being underappreciated, quite storied. There is a ton of history involved in a number of these games that play into what makes them so great.

The rivalry between the Miami Hurricanes and the Virginia Tech Hokies doesn’t qualify in that regard, even if there is still a great deal of bad blood between the two programs whenever they face off.

For starters, Miami and Virginia Tech first faced off in 1953 and played sporadically over the next 38 years. After the Hokies became members of the Big East in 1991, though, the two teams have played every year since 1992. That has continued since 2004 as well when both programs elected to join the ACC as part of the conference’s expansion.

Early on in the rivalry — before it was a rivalry, even — Miami was wholly dominant over the Hokies, winning the first 12 meetings between the two teams. Since then, though, Virginia Tech has made the series quite even, going 14-12 in the 26 games after the initial 12-game losing streak.

This rivalry took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The teams were ranked second and third when they met in 2000, a game won by No. 3 Miami. Three years later, the Hokies were victorious to snap a Hurricanes winning streak. Then, in their first year as ACC foes, they played for a berth in a BCS game as top-10 teams and Virginia Tech was victorious.

Although the new-ish rivalry has lost some of its shine in recent years, there is still a great deal of quality recent history between these two teams. As they remain part of the ACC, let’s hope both programs rebound and revitalize the rivalry in a big way.