2009 Orange Bowl
The 2009 FedEx Orange Bowl was the 75th edition of the annual American college football bowl game known as the Orange Bowl. It pitted the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion Virginia Tech Hokies against the Big East Conference champion Cincinnati Bearcats on January 1, 2009, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Virginia Tech defeated Cincinnati, 20–7. The game was the second contest in the 2008–2009 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was the concluding game of the season for both teams. The game was televised in the United States on FOX, and an estimated 9.3 million viewers watched the broadcast live.
2009 Orange Bowl
Pregame media coverage of the game focused on the fact that the 2009 Orange Bowl was Cincinnati's first Bowl Championship Series game in school history. For Virginia Tech, coverage focused on the Hokies' winless history in BCS games since 1995, as Tech had lost all four of its appearances in a BCS game since an upset win over Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl. Also mentioned was the fact that the two teams had faced each other in the 1947 Sun Bowl, which had been each school's first bowl game. The low win rate of ACC teams in general was another point of interest. Teams from the conference had won just one of their ten appearances in a BCS bowl before the Orange Bowl. Before the Orange Bowl matchup, the two teams last played in 2006, when the Hokies defeated the Bearcats, 29–13, at Virginia Tech's home field, Lane Stadium. For the Orange Bowl, spread bettors favored a reversal of that 2006 final, as Cincinnati was initially favored by one point. This expanded to 1.5 points by December 9. The trend toward Cincinnati continued, and on December 27, betting organizations gave Cincinnati the edge by two or two and a half points.