TheSabre.com Poll: Which Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See On The Schedule For The First Time?

Last week’s bye week led to an interesting football poll question: Which Previous Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See Back On The Schedule?

This week, Virginia is back in action but The Sabre wanted to provide the complimentary poll question. There are 22 opponents from Pac 12, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC that UVa has never faced in football. So …

Which Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See On The Schedule For The First Time?

As always, the poll remains open until next Wednesday at midnight and the results will be recapped the following Thursday (see last week’s results below).

Which Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See On The Schedule For The First Time?

  • Northwestern (21%, 95 Votes)
  • Stanford (19%, 90 Votes)
  • Mississippi (16%, 75 Votes)
  • Alabama (10%, 45 Votes)
  • Colorado (6%, 30 Votes)
  • LSU (6%, 29 Votes)
  • Nebraska (5%, 21 Votes)
  • California (5%, 21 Votes)
  • Iowa (2%, 11 Votes)
  • Texas A&M (2%, 9 Votes)
  • Iowa State (1%, 6 Votes)
  • Washington State (1%, 5 Votes)
  • Arkansas (1%, 5 Votes)
  • Michigan State (1%, 4 Votes)
  • Mississippi State (1%, 3 Votes)
  • Baylor (1%, 3 Votes)
  • Arizona (1%, 3 Votes)
  • Utah (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Arizona State (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Oregon State (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Kansas State (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Oklahoma State (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 463

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With a bye week on the calendar, last week’s poll decided to focus on a non-conference scheduling question for the Virginia football program. UVa has played 28 current Power 5 teams in the past; Oregon, Indiana, and Illinois have been announced as future opponents from the Power 5 conferences of the Pac 12, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC. The question was simple:

Which Previous Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See Back On The Schedule?

The leading answers may be a little surprising, depending on your point of view. Vanderbilt, hardly a traditional football power, led the poll with 15% of the vote. Maryland, who the Hoos faced for years in the ACC, finished second with 11% of the vote.

The next several candidates were a little more expected perhaps. Georgia and Penn State each took 10% of the vote, while West Virginia claimed 8%. Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina each shared 6%.

One thing that seems pretty clear from the poll, however, is that Virginia fans don’t want to keep playing teams from west of the Mississippi River. UCLA, USC, Washington, and Oregon combined for just 18 total votes or a paltry 2% of the poll results. Even states close to the river dividing line didn’t fare well with Missouri, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and TCU sharing 11 total votes, less than 1% of the poll results. Only Kansas with 2% and the aforementioned Texas with 6% drew much interest beyond the river.

Interestingly, Virginia has hosted a team from west of the Mississippi River 14 times in program history. That includes eight of the past 10 seasons, however, with 2015 in the mix with Boise State. Before this recent string, UVa had hosted just five teams from west of the river in the 116 previous years of football. The Hoos have played only 18 games west of the river (including this season’s UCLA game), but are in the middle of a four-year stretch with a game beyond that marking point each season.

With Oregon (2016), Boise State (2017), and BYU (2019/2020) up again in future years, there seems to be a disconnect between the schedule plans and the schedule fans want to see.

The full results:

Which Previous Power 5 Opponent Would You Like To See Back On The Schedule?

  • Vanderbilt (21 times) (15%, 117 Votes)
  • Maryland (78 times) (11%, 85 Votes)
  • Georgia (19 times) (10%, 75 Votes)
  • Penn State (8 times) (10%, 74 Votes)
  • West Virginia (23 times) (8%, 64 Votes)
  • Michigan (1899, 1971, 1995) (6%, 49 Votes)
  • Tennessee (4 times) (6%, 46 Votes)
  • Texas (1977, 1995, 1996) (6%, 46 Votes)
  • South Carolina (34 times) (6%, 45 Votes)
  • Kentucky (1902, 1903, 1930) (4%, 34 Votes)
  • Auburn (1997, 1998, 2011) (3%, 27 Votes)
  • Florida (1959) (3%, 20 Votes)
  • Kansas (1990, 1991) (2%, 17 Votes)
  • Rutgers (5 times) (2%, 13 Votes)
  • Wisconsin (2001) (1%, 10 Votes)
  • Purdue (1968, 1984) (1%, 8 Votes)
  • UCLA (2014, 2015) (1%, 8 Votes)
  • Ohio State (1933) (1%, 8 Votes)
  • USC (2008, 2010) (1%, 7 Votes)
  • Indiana (2009, 2011) (1%, 6 Votes)
  • Illinois (1990, 1999) (1%, 4 Votes)
  • Missouri (1973) (0%, 3 Votes)
  • Minnesota (2005) (0%, 3 Votes)
  • Texas Tech (2007) (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Washington (1976) (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Oklahoma (1991) (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Oregon (2013) (0%, 1 Votes)
  • TCU (1994, 2009, 2012) (0%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 777

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