With the division system being demolished in the ACC, Virginia Tech no longer has to battle all of the Coastal teams for a shot at the Championship game, all that the Hokies would need to do is finish top two in the conference based on their conference record, which basically means that Virginia Tech should consider how they played in their first four games, but throw that out of the window for now because a new season will start on Friday for the Hokies.

The woes for the Virginia Tech team have been apparent and unchanged, but they’d only need to sneak an upset win or two and take all of the toss-up games on the schedule.

Now, I’m not saying that Virginia Tech needs to or will upset Miami, but I will consider paths to the Championship Game, with and without a loss to Miami.

Starting with the most realistic scenario, which would be Virginia Tech losing to Miami. In that situation, Miami would likely be a lock to be the highest ranked team in the conference, but it would be between SMU, Clemson, Louisville, and Virginia Tech to all vie for the last spot. With that, Virginia Tech would simply have to win out, with the number of teams now in the ACC a two-loss team just wont make the Championship Game, that’s why programs like Georgia Tech are essentially out of the race.

That schedule looks daunting, but outside of Clemson most of those games are toss-ups. They play Stanford, Boston College, Syracuse, and Georgia Tech after the Miami game, all of which could go either way. Against Clemson they could be double-digit underdogs, but still a game they need to win, so anything can happen. Then, the Hokies will end the season against Duke and Virginia, two teams I think they will be favored against.

Now the other path for Virginia Tech depends entirely on a win against Miami this Friday. The Hokies would have to pull off likely one of the bigger upsets in the history of the ACC. If they can do that though, the path gets much easier. Because the Hokies knocked off Miami, there’s no undebatable number one team in the conference, so the Hokies could lose one or even two games considering that they would have a tie-breaker over Miami.

This is the lesser likely of the two scenarios, but who knows? It’s Friday Night Football, and we’ve seen that be a problem for favorites this season.

Think of it as something like training camp, take two.

The Denver Broncos are doing some team bonding in West Virginia as they prepare for their next game. They’re staying at and practicing at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs.

The team opted not to fly back to Colorado after Sunday’s game in Florida and are avoiding long flights to and from the East Coast this week as a result. They’re facing the Jets on the road in Week 4 (Sunday at 11 a.m., on CBS), so The Greenbrier is their home away from home for a few days.

When Broncos head coach Sean Payton coached for New Orleans, the Saints held their training camp at The Greenbrier on three different occasions — in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

“This is the first time for me being back since then,” Payton said on Wednesday. “It’s just how we kind of envisioned it. Logistically, everything fits.”

Payton hopes that with the team staying together at the resort it will lead to the team becoming closer. His starting quarterback said that’s already happening.

“We have some room to hang out with the guys, and you’re not at home, so you can treat it a little bit differently and … use your routine but also kind of ad lib at the same time and enjoy each other’s company,” said quarterback Bo Nix.

 Cornerback Patrick Surtain II said the team chemistry is “building and building” this week.

“We have a lot at our disposal to enjoy here at the resort, and we’re enjoying every bit of it,” Surtain said.

Kicker Wil Lutz said it’s hard being away from family members, but there are some benefits.

“When you’re able to get the locker room tighter and get this team tighter, I think you’ve got to take every opportunity to do that,” Lutz said.

The Broncos will leave the resort on Friday and head closer to East Rutherford, New Jersey, for their weekend game at MetLife Stadium. 

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland judge on Wednesday indefinitely postponed a resentencing hearing for convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, after Virginia rejected a request to temporarily let him out of prison to attend a court session in Maryland.

Malvo and his partner, John Allen Muhammad, shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others over a three-week span in October 2002 that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. Multiple other victims were shot and killed across the country in the prior months as the duo made their way to the area around the nation’s capital from Washington state.

Malvo, who was 17 years old at the time of the shootings, was convicted of multiple counts of murder in Virginia and Maryland and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has been serving his sentence in Virginia.

Muhammad, who was older than Malvo and was accused of manipulating him to to serve as a partner in the shootings, was executed in Virginia in 2009.

Since Malvo was initially sentenced, though, a series of Supreme Court rulings and changes in Maryland and Virginia law have severely limited or even abolished the ability to sentence minors to life in prison without parole.

In 2022, Maryland’s highest court ruled 4-3 that Malvo is entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

That hearing was scheduled to occur in December in Montgomery County, Maryland. But Malvo has insisted that he be allowed to attend that sentencing hearing in person, and his court-appointed lawyer argued that if isn’t allowed to do so, his guilty pleas in Maryland should be vacated and he should be given a new trial.

“He has a right to be here in person, and he’s not waiving it,” his lawyer, Michael Beach, said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Prosecutors said they made efforts to have Malvo transferred from a Virginia prison to attend a hearing, but those efforts were rejected.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s spokesman, Christian Martinez, confirmed after Wednesday’s hearing in a written statement that “(d)ue to his violent criminal history, Governor Youngkin’s position is that Mr. Malvo should complete his Virginia sentence before being transferred to Maryland for resentencing.”

With Malvo unavailable to attend in person, prosecutors said Malvo could either attend a hearing virtually or wait until he is released from custody in Virginia.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Sharon Burrell sided with prosecutors, She said that since Malvo insists on attending in person, and Virginia won’t release him, she had no choice but to indefinitely postpone the resentencing until he finishes serving his time in Virginia.

Malvo is serving a life sentence in Virginia, but is eligible for parole. A parole board rejected his most recent parole request in 2022.

Beach said after the hearing that he expects to pursue any appeal options available to him. He said during the proceedings that if the sentencing hearing is delayed for an extended period of time, he believes it raises due process issues that could require the Maryland charges against Malvo to be dismissed.

Malvo, who is 39, attended Wednesday’s hearing virtually, wearing a yellow prison uniform. He looked youthful, similar to his appearance at the time of his arrest.

Perhaps underscoring the difficulties of conducting a hearing over video, Wednesday’s hearing was delayed three times when the video hookup between the prison and courthouse disconnected.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the hearing that it’s too early to say what kind of prison term he would seek once Malvo is sentenced in Maryland. He said, though, that any prison term imposed on him in Maryland should be in addition to the time he served in Virginia, rather than giving Malvo credit for time served.