
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411160130
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press and staff reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

VIRGINIA ASSURED OF BOWL BID

Virginia was assured a bowl bid Tuesday when the Independence Bowl and the Atlantic Coast Conference reached an agreement for a team from the league to play in the Dec.28 game in Shreveport, La.

Five ACC teams - Florida State, North Carolina State, Duke, UVa and North Carolina - have the necessary six victories over Division I-A opponents to qualify for postseason play. The bowl will get to pick the fifth ACC team after a pair of selections by the bowl coalition and one each by the Peach and Hall of Fame bowls.

Even if the Cavaliers (7-2) lose their final two games to Virginia Tech - last year's Independence Bowl winner - and N.C. State, they will play in their sixth bowl in eight years. UVa has at least seven victories in each of those seasons.

The ACC team will face an at-large opponent to be chosen by the Independence. Payout is $750,000 per team.

The ACC has had at least four teams in bowls for five consecutive years and five postseason participants in three of the past four seasons.

``To have five teams [of a nine-team conference] already eligible for postseason play at this date is a credit to everyone [in the league],'' said Gene Corrigan, the ACC's commissioner.

Wake Forest was the last ACC team to play in the Independence Bowl, defeating Oregon 39-35 in 1992.

by CNB