ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601100020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The weekend buffet:
POWER: ACC basketball may be absent from the top of the national rankings, but the league ranks first where it counts most in March. In the first Ratings Percentage Index of the season, the ACC led the conference power rankings.
Of 87 pre-conference games, 21 were against nationally ranked teams. Eight of the nine ACC teams rank between sixth and 55th in the RPI, with Virginia at what's probably an all-time low No.78. That was before Wednesday's loss to Florida State, too.
HOKIE HIGH: Defending an NIT championship, a Sugar Bowl victory ... but maybe just as impressive is what Virginia Tech has accomplished in its backyard. Until this season, the Hokies hadn't beaten Virginia in football and men's basketball in the same season since 1985-86.
And when was the last time before this season Tech defeated its two closest rivals, UVa and West Virginia, in the same school year in both marquee sports?
Never. Tech has played Virginia and WVU in both sports in the same school year 35 times, including every year since 1973-74, and also 1952-53 and '53-54, and from 1957-58 through '65-66.
PERFECT: The list of unbeaten Division I basketball teams already has dwindled to nine, and a supposed football school - Clemson - has two of them. The Tigers' men and women are each 10-0. The other men's unbeatens are Massachusetts, Cincinnati, Penn State and Miami of Ohio. The other women's perfectos are Louisiana Tech, Vanderbilt and Iowa State.
MASS MIGHT: Top-ranked Massachusetts appears to have a real chance at being the first unbeaten team to enter the NCAA Tournament since Nevada-Las Vegas in 1978-79. The Minutemen don't have to visit cross-division Atlantic 10 foe George Washington, where they've struggled in recent years, leaving their toughest tasks at Temple, at Virginia Tech and at Louisville.
I-AA FOES: Proposal 90 at the NCAA Convention starting today asks that a I-A football team again be allowed to count a victory over a I-AA team toward the six-win bowl requirement, providing the I-AA team awards an average of 60 scholarships over three years.
The NCAA Special Events Committee, which sanctions bowls, thankfully opposes this. The 11 schools sponsoring the legislation are Arkansas, Army, Clemson, Kansas State, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Thumbs down to them.
CLIMBING: Virginia Tech's No.10 finish in The Associated Press football poll is the best for a state team since the writers began voting in 1936. The best prior AP finish by a state team was Virginia's 13th place in 1951. UVa was No.16 this time, giving the state 15 finishes in AP final rankings.
Virginia has had six appearances and Tech four. In days of old, William and Mary placed 14th in 1942 and '47 and 17th in '48; Washington and Lee was 18th in 1950 and VMI 20th in '57.
JERRY BALL: Of course, the Dallas Cowboys should win Super Bowl XXX. They're only $25.1 million over the NFL salary cap for this season. Of course, the Washington Redskins were $9.4 million over the cap, and they went only 6-10.
OLD NAME: When Virginia builds its new basketball facility, and it will, maybe it will be named Bruce Arena.
DON GONE: Don Shula's coaching career began as a Virginia assistant in 1958. He coached against 130 different coaches in his 33 NFL seasons, a list that ranges alphabetically from George Allen to Sam Wyche. Can it be that the NFL is losing two institutions, Shula and the Cleveland Browns, in the same year?
DIRTY DOZEN: Move over, SEC. The future Big 12 members were 6-1 in bowls this year, the only loss by Texas to the Hokies. In the last year of the Big Eight, Nebraska was unbeaten, and Colorado lost only to Kansas and Nebraska. The Jayhawks lost only to Kansas State and Nebraska. K-State lost only to Colorado and Nebraska.
If Paul Tagliabue is seeking an NFL expansion team to play at Hollywood Park, maybe he should call Tom Osborne.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB