ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512040025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
To measure the miles Virginia Tech's football program has traveled, consider two historical markers at the Hokies' potential bowl destinations.
The only time Frank Beamer coached the Hokies in the Louisiana Superdome, a 1987 Tulane team bound for a .500 season scored eight touchdowns and 57 points, the fifth-highest total for an opponent in Tech history.
The Hokies are 0-for-7 in games in the Orange Bowl.
On the eve of accepting their first major bowl berth in the Orange or Sugar, it's significant that Tech's school-record, nine-game winning streak began in September with a first win over Miami. It's just as notable the Hokies haven't played the Green Wave since 1989, when they were very similar programs.
Standing among fellow alumni at fund-raising soirees for nine years, Beamer has told hopeful Hokies that ``the day we reach the Orange or Sugar bowl will be a new day at Virginia Tech.'' That day dawns Sunday. For his first four years, Beamer would have been happy just to reach the Independence, because Tech was an independent.
The coach has said Tech's bowling three straight years - a first for the Hokies - is part of ``changing the status of the program.'' However, what helped reverse Tech's football fortunes most is conference affiliation.
Yes, the Hokies have stepped up their bowl profile by going from the Independence to the Gator to the Sugar or Orange, but they would have had little hope of reaching any of those games without Big East football membership. It is no coincidence that Tech is 3-for-3 in bowl bids since the Big East began a full schedule.
``Getting in the league allowed us to do a very difficult thing, something not many schools do, and getting in the Big East, with its large markets and media and exposure, allowed us to do it even quicker,'' Beamer said Friday as he waited among all the Hokies with bowl-baited breath. ``Ten years ago, it wasn't the same.''
Beamer is correct. It's only recently that conferences have tied into lower-tier bowls boosted by television money. The Bowl Alliance seed money is rooted in the tube, too. ``Unless you're Notre Dame, if you're not in a league now, you're really out there alone,'' Beamer said.
See East Carolina. The Pirates are 8-3, including 3-0 against Big East teams, and have a second straight Liberty Bowl bid. However, they aren't part of Conference USA, which replaces the Liberty alliance for that bowl berth starting next season. ECU is where Tech would be if the Hokies weren't in a league.
Tech's program came from its lowest point of the Beamer years immediately when it started playing in a league. The Hokies, 2-8-1 in 1992, had the biggest turnaround in Division I-A by going 9-3 in its first full Big East season. Tech is 15-6 in league play since '93, and one of only 11 programs in I-A with at least eight victories in each of the past three regular seasons.
It's obvious the Big East was down this season, with only three bowl eligibles before Miami walked the NCAA plank Friday, but what has buoyed Tech's football attitude and aptitude is the the Hokies' knowledge that they'll play a familiar schedule.
``It's a fact of life, whether it's up or down in any year, that in the Big East you're going to play seven games that are critically important,'' Beamer said. ``That's a totally different situation than we were in before. Then, as an independent, we were trying to schedule seven big games. Now, you have seven conference games, and if you win all or most of those, you're in great shape.''
The Hokies have better players these days, and they still play Virginia, West Virginia and Miami among recurring rivals. However, instead of Florida State, Clemson, Oklahoma, South Carolina and N.C. State on a regular basis, Tech plays opponents that aren't as prominent. Seven big games is too many. Another fact of life: Once you reach a bowl, everyone seems to forget who you beat to get there.
What's more significant is that when you're in a conference and finish at least 4-3 in the league and 3-1 in non-conference games, you're probably bowl-bound. There are only four 7-4 teams not in bowls this year. Baylor was left out because the future Big 12 already got seven bids. Utah and San Diego State are from the camera-shy WAC. Louisville is an independent.
Would Tech have recovered from an 0-2 start to finish 9-2 had it been an independent? Probably not, because the Hokies wouldn't have been playing for a conference championship they shared, a title that will return them to New Orleans or Miami as a very different program.
In going from a Southern independent to the Big East family, the Hokies headed north more than geographically.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB