USA Today’s college football preview guide has been published, and Virginia Tech is the preseason pick to represent the ACC in the Orange Bowl. It’s the popular pick this summer, despite the logjam of potential Coastal Division winners.

Is the Orange Bowl the ceiling for the Hokies this year, though, or can Virginia Tech return to the national title game for a second time under coach Frank Beamer?

Beamer has flirted with a national title before – in 2000 against FSU -- but the program hasn’t finished higher than third in the BCS standings since then. If it doesn’t happen this year with a veteran quarterback and two 1,000-yard rushers, it probably won’t happen before Beamer decides to retire.

The best thing Virginia Tech has going for it this fall is the fact that Alabama isn’t on the schedule.

The worst thing? Miami, Georgia Tech and North Carolina are.

The Hokies have a challenging yet manageable nonconference schedule, with the biggest test obviously coming in the season opener against Boise State. If Virginia Tech can win that game, there’s no reason the Hokies shouldn’t go 4-0 against nonconference opponents.

It’s the rest of the schedule that will keep Virginia Tech -- and everyone else in the ACC -- out of the national title game.

There is no dominant team in the ACC yet, no true separation in either division. While Miami and Florida State appear on the verge of returning to national relevance, the Hurricanes seem one year away from reaching their peak, and the Seminoles’ defense remains a question. What the ACC lacks in one great team, it compensates for in five or six very good teams.

Last year’s loss to eventual national champion Alabama didn’t doom Virginia Tech’s title hopes. Nor did Darren Evans">Darren Evans’ season-ending knee injury. It was back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina that did the Hokies in, and the rest of the Coastal Division will be Virginia Tech’s biggest obstacle again.