Like its new uniforms, Tech's season off to a black start

After Monday's game, Virginia Tech football players left FedEx Field with some nice parting gifts.

Their uniforms will make great Halloween costumes.

"Pro-combat black," Nike calls the get-ups Tech chose - was required? - to wear.

Black may fit the Tech mood this week, but is it anywhere to be found in the school's color scheme?

Marketing over tradition, right?

But while the unis need to go back in the closet, nobody can argue that the game didn't shine a warm, bright light on college football.

Neither Tech nor Boise State looked particularly sharp, not surprising for an opening game. The sloppiness, though, contributed to a thickening plot. As a rule, college audiences value emotion over efficiency. Therein lies the great popularity of March Madness.

Watching on TV, it was obvious that while the crowd at FedEx belonged to Tech, ESPN's stage was set for Boise State.

That was to be expected, especially after the visitors jumped out to a 17-0 lead.

Beyond FedEx Field and Hokie allegiances, Boise State was the drawing card. Frank Beamer's teams keep stamping out 10-win seasons, and for this they are respected and often feared. But the Hokies aren't beloved.

Taking the field in black couldn't have helped, either. For whom are dispassionate football fans going to root, a team of Darth Vaders or Cinderellas?

Cinderella is what play-by-play man Brent Musburger called Boise State, ignoring the fact that the Broncos were ranked ahead of Tech in preseason polls.

This must have annoyed literal-minded and cliche-shy people, but you could make the case that Brent got it right when he looked past the rankings to appeal to the emotions of a general audience.

Boise State is the pretty college girl from a humble background who isn't invited to the sorority dance. The Broncos are outsiders, regardless of their ranking. In the great scheme of big-time football, they'll always be underdogs.

Anyway, I like the way Brent presents a game. He's loose and tries to have fun. It's meant to be entertainment, after all.

Somebody always has to go and ruin the fun, though, turning college football into a grim exercise of acquiring and hanging on to rankings and bowl options.

It will not go unnoted that Beamer's teams are now 1-18 against top-five ranked opponents. Tech's big-game futility pre-dates its arrival in the ACC, but it fits the Hokies' current address.

An ACC team hasn't beaten a non conference opponent ranked in the top five for nine seasons.

There will be the usual grumbling about that.

(Meanwhile, should Tech fans be grousing about their team's play-calling on the final, fruitless drive? Why go for broke with two long passing attempts when shorter, higher-percentage passes are usually available? Enough time remained and only a field goal was needed to tie the game.)

It's only to be expected that Boise State's victory would inspire voices from the Internet and elsewhere to begin kvetching again about the need for a playoff. The whiners are worried that Boise State will run the table now and reach the BCS title game.

That's what you call premature exasperation. A lot could still happen, though of Boise State's 11 remaining opponents, 10 are the ACC equivalent of Duke and N.C. State.

While the schedule is weak, let's stay in the moment. Boise State came across the country with one chance to make a statement and handled the pressure admirably, even if that meant committing only one or two fewer big mistakes than Tech.

In addition to knowing that it let a big one get away, Tech probably has other class-conscious BCS schools peeved at it for failing to rid the process of Cinderella.

Tech was so close to doing that, of altering the football landscape from coast to coast, before its own hopeful storyline faded to black.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373 bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com