Hoda Kotb Reunites with 70 of Her Tri Delta Sorority Sisters as She Kicks off Last Week on Today: ‘This Is Crazy!’

Hoda Kotb‘s last week at the Today show began on Monday, Jan. 6 with a bang!

The NBC morning news show is honoring Kotb over the next five days with what they’ve dubbed a “Hoda-bration,” promising “fun, laughs, and surprises” along the way. And they stayed true to that word in the 8:30 a.m. hour, when they reunited Kotb with 70 of her former Tri Delta sorority sisters from Virginia Tech.

It all took place on the Today Plaza, where the Marching Virginias and HokieBird — Virginia Tech’s marching band and mascot — began with a performance of “Tech Triumph,”  the university’s most popular fight song famously composed in 1919 by Wilfred P. Maddux (Class of 1920) and his neighbor, Mattie Eppes.

Kotb, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986 with a degree in broadcast journalism, was dressed for the occasion. “I have to confess something,” she told them. “I knew that you guys were here, I heard that you were here, so I under my blazer I made sure I was wearing my Virginia Tech shirt!”

But while she may have known the band would be there, Kotb had no idea what was coming next.

Savannah Guthrie teed up the bombshell coming Kotb’s way.

“We know you have a lot of school spirit, but there’s just some people where, I think we can kick it up a notch,” Guthrie said, while standing alongside Today‘s Carson Daly, Craig Melvin and Al Roker. “See, you thought that you knew what we were doing today. Well, let’s welcome out your Tri Delta sorority sisters!”

A parade of Virginia Tech alums followed suit, many carrying signs of support and all wearing maroon knit hats embroidered with the Tri Delta logo on them.

“Oh my God!” a shocked Kotb exclaimed, as her sorority sisters embraced her. She continued to repeat the phrase over and over again, as she recognized more and more faces.

“They called us a two weeks ago and they said, ‘Can you get a few Tri Deltas?’ And during the holidays, everybody rallied to do this,” two of her sorority sisters explained. “Came from all over the country, because we love you.”

Asked by Daly what she was like in college, Kotb’s sorority sisters said she hasn’t changed. “She was like she is now. That is why we are here. Because we know America loves Hoda.”

Now decked in a matching knit hat, Kotb hugged her former classmates, including a woman named Ann who Kotb said was her little sister in the sorority.

“You guys, I can’t believe you did this,” Kotb said. “I love you guys. I was the pledge trainer for the sorority. It meant the absolute world to me. I can’t believe you guys came. I’m shocked. I can’t believe it y’all. This is crazy!”

“That was the best,” Kotb added. “That was the awesomest! Thank you, guys.”

“We love you Hody,” they all said in unison.

Kotb, who recently moved to the suburbs, then pitched a big get-together after Daly asked, “Are you guys all sleeping at Hoda’s tonight?”

“Everybody’s invited!” Kotb said. “We gotta go out today, we have to!”

“It’s a kegger at Hoda’s!” joked Roker.

Kotb announced in September that she planned to depart her role at Today after nearly two decades, citing a desire to spend more time with daughters Hope Catherine, 5, and Haley Joy, 7.

“There’s the guilt you carry because you can’t be 100% at work and 100% at home,” she told PEOPLE in an October cover story. “Something has to give if you want excellence. If you’re going to be excellent at work, something has to give at home. And if you want to be excellent at home, I mean excellent, and do all the things, something has to give at work. It can’t be equal.”

Another factor in her decision was the personal reflection that came with celebrating her milestone 60th birthday in August.

“I’ve kind of been contemplating, wondering, thinking about what I wanted this next chunk of my life to look like as I turned 60,” she said. “And I like adventure, I like new beginnings. I’m a sunrise person and not a sunset person, and I was wondering, what does it look like for me?”

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Kotb’s final episode of Today and Today with Hoda and Jenna will air on Friday, Jan. 10. Melvin will step in as her replacement on Today beginning on Monday, Jan. 13.

The Today show airs weekdays on NBC (beginning at 7 a.m. ET).