Atlanta’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff college football game has matchups arranged for each of the next five seasons after announcing Friday that South Carolina and Virginia Tech will meet in the 2025 event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It should be an intriguing matchup with Shane Beamer coaching against his father’s former team,” said Gary Stokan, president and CEO of Peach Bowl Inc., which operates the Kickoff games.
Shane Beamer was hired last month as South Carolina’s head coach, and his father, Frank Beamer, a College Football Hall of Famer, coached Virginia Tech for 29 years before retiring after the 2015 season.
Other matchups previously announced for future Chick-fil-A Kickoff games are: Alabama vs. Miami and Louisville vs. Ole Miss in 2021; Georgia vs. Oregon and Georgia Tech vs. Clemson in 2022; Georgia Tech vs. Louisville in 2023; and Georgia vs. Clemson in 2024.
South Carolina, of the SEC, and Virginia Tech, of the ACC, last played each other in football in 1991. Their meeting in the Kickoff game will be on either Aug. 31, 2025, a Sunday, or Sept. 1, 2025, a Monday. The game will be televised on ABC or ESPN.
The season-opening Kickoff event has been held in Atlanta since 2008. Virginia Tech has played in it twice, losing to Alabama in 2009 and 2013. The 2025 game will be South Carolina’s first appearance in the event.
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