Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410220029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: SYRACUSE, N. Y. LENGTH: Medium
However, if Virginia Tech can win under Syracuse's big top today, the Hokies' football fortunes are likely to grow positively green.
It's not just because the Big East's version of arenaball before a sellout crowd is Tech's first network regional telecast date in 11 years. The Hokies will earn $360,000 for the second straight TV game today, win or lose.
However, if Tech extends its unbeaten start to 5-0 - that would be its best beginning since Frank Beamer was a junior defensive back 27 years ago for the program he now coaches - the Hokies would be in position for much bigger bucks.
How big? Well, with what could happen with TV and bowl possibilities the remainder of the season, figuring with dollars and common sense, Tech could earn more than twice as much as it will take to pay the $923,589 owed Beamer on his midseason five-year contract coup.
If the Hokies don't make a mess on the Orange's carpet - and it is a big if although Tech is a 51/2-point favorite - it wouldn't be a stretch to figure Beamer's team at 8-0 heading to Miami for an Oct. 29 date.
That game would be televised by ABC or ESPN, and if Tech and Virginia go into their North-Robb Bowl on Nov.19 with no more than two losses each, that game should get CFA tube time, too.
On a larger scale, a Hokie victory today puts Tech in position to finish no worse than second in the Big East race. It keeps Beamer's team prominent in the polls. Those numbers really add up at bowl time.
In the final year of the original bowl coalition, already after only one month of the season, it appears that the Fiesta Bowl cannot have a national championship game.
That's because it isn't likely that any combination of Notre Dame and the Big East and ACC champions will finish 1-2 in the polls. Miami and the Fighting Irish already have lost. Florida State could play the Nebraska-Colorado winner for the title in the Orange Bowl.
The Seminoles still must play Florida and Miami, and a bowl rematch with the Gators isn't likely. Or, Penn State might focus the national title picture on the Rose, against Arizona.
What this all means to Tech - if it can hang around the top 10 - is not just the possibility of a New Year's Day bowl date, but the cash that goes with it. The Fiesta pays $3 million. Even if Tech slides into the second tier of the coalition and the Gator Bowl, that's a $1.8 million per-team payoff.
And what that means is Tech athletic business manager Jeff Bourne no longer would be figuring this year's budget with red-inked pens.
If this game is like the Orange's first two Carrier dates this season, it will be a game to make defensive coordinators weep. In one-pointers with Oklahoma and Rutgers, Carrier spectators have seen an average of 66 points per game.
Tech ranks second nationally in defense; Syracuse is last in the Big East defensively, allowing 5.7 yards per play and more than 420 per game.
Syracuse has allowed an average of 271 air yards in four starts, but can Tech's struggling passing game take advantage against likely the best club the Hokies have played to date?
Tech's offense will be without its best runner, Dwayne Thomas, and starting guard Damien McMahon - both injured - and even with them, the Hokies have played about as inconsistently as any club averaging 26 points could.
No matter how far Syracuse's defense stretches, the Hokies can ill afford to keep averaging 10 penalties. How long can a team play flag football and flirt with the top 10?
About 600 miles from home up I-81, the Hokies find themselves at a crossroads other than the one with the New York Thruway.
The winner of today's indoor orange bowl should start thinking greater conquests. The loser should start thinking Carquest.
by CNB