2008 Orange Bowl
The 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Kansas Jayhawks on January 3, 2008, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Spread bettors favored Virginia Tech by three points, but in a game dominated by defensive and special teams play, Kansas defeated Virginia Tech 24–21. The game was part of the 2007–2008 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was the concluding game of the season for both teams. This 74th edition of the Orange Bowl was televised in the United States on FOX and was watched by more than eight million viewers.
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.