Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9409220037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Big East game has been moved to 3:30 p.m. and will be televised throughout the East, as far south as Virginia. WSET (Channel 13) will air the game in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market. It is one of three College Football Association games in the time period with Big Ten and Pacific 10 regional telecasts. The other games are Georgia Tech-North Carolina State, Colorado-Texas, Michigan-Iowa and UCLA-Washington.
The CFA contract with ABC pays $720,000 for a regional ABC telecast, and Tech and Syracuse will split that check because the Big East does not share TV money. Tech is earning another $360,000 for its Thursday night home game against West Virginia, which is a CFA date on cable's ESPN.
The game at the Carrier Dome will be Tech's first over-the-air network appearance in coach Frank Beamer's seven-plus seasons at his alma mater. It also is Tech's first since the CFA started its TV plan in 1984, after the more-restrictive NCAA package was ruled in violation of antitrust law.
During Bill Dooley's coaching years at Tech, the Hokies made nine ABC/CBS appearances from 1978-83, the last a 13-0 loss at West Virginia in October 1983. Since then, Tech's only two CFA network dates have been on cable, both at Lane Stadium - in '84 against West Virginia on USA Network and in the 1990 season finale against Virginia on ESPN.
Before the Dooley years, Tech's only two TV dates in the NCAA package came in 1959 and '66, both regionals.
With Tech's win at Boston College on the Big East Football Conference package, the WVU and Syracuse dates put three consecutive Hokies' games on television. The WVU and Syracuse games give Tech its first back-to-back network appearances in history.
by CNB