ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The midweek buffet:
George Welsh said last December that if Virginia's football program wanted to remain a perennial poll-sitter, the Cavaliers needed more seats in Scott Stadium. The UVa coach obviously isn't alone in those thoughts.
The university will ask the General Assembly early next year for permission to start planning for a 20,000-seat addition to Scott Stadium. Such an addition, which basically would enclose the south end zone around Bryant Hall, would cost an estimated $40 million, which must be raised privately. Virginia law prohibits the use of state funds for athletic facilities.
It also would take 40,000-seat Scott Stadium from the third-smallest stadium capacity in the ACC to third largest, behind those at Clemson and Florida State. University facilities officials say the project has a targeted completion for the 2002 season.
Whether or not Welsh is still on the sidelines then - he's 63 - UVa feels the expansion is needed. The Cavaliers cut off season ticket sales at a record 26,000 this season. Virginia athletic director Terry Holland said before the season that a stadium expansion was coveted - and perhaps it will be achieved before the school gets a long-desired and forever-discussed basketball arena.
The stadium expansion proposal, officials said, would include other cosmetic changes, such as a new pressbox, corporate suites and a large plaza above the north end zone, with the slope of the ``hill'' altered and moved closer to the playing field.
COLD SEATS: The ACC's No.4 bowl pick was required to buy 12,000 Carquest Bowl tickets. Virginia is going to eat about 75 percent of those. UVa ticket manager Dick Mathias said Tuesday the Cavaliers to date have sold about 2,500 tickets for the Dec.27 date with Miami at Pro Player Stadium.
``North Carolina sold about 3,000 last year [for the Carquest],'' Mathias said. ``It's what we sold [in 1993] when we played Boston College there. It's about your typical ACC sale for that game. Remember, we sold 20,000 to the Peach Bowl last year.''
Yes, but the Carquest sale isn't going to bowl over anyone when officials begin assessing UVa's postseason potential in seasons to come.
BIG DEAL: Big Ten basketball, torched in recent years for its NCAA Tournament flops, has decided to play a men's conference tournament starting next season. The vote was 9-2, with Bobby Knight U. and Michigan in the minority.
It's only going to toughen a very competitive league, besides earning each school at least $300,000 annually. It also is likely to reduce the number of regular-season Big Ten games from 18 to 16. The Big Ten won't play its tournament at any site with fewer than 20,000 seats. The early favorite for the inaugural tournament is the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, home of the 1997 NCAA Final Four.
'SKINNED: The Washington Redskins really need help from the team that beat them Sunday. If Minnesota defeats Tampa Bay this weekend, the Vikings will finish no worse than 9-7 overall and 8-4 in the NFC. The conference record would be the wild-card tiebreaker, and the Redskins are only 5-5 against NFC foes, with Arizona and Dallas left. Philadelphia also has the divisional wild-card edge on the 'Skins.
FIRST PITCH: The Salem Avalanche will have something this season the local baseball franchise has had only once in the past five seasons. The Avalanche will open the Carolina League season at home, April 4 against Durham, which will be starting its last season in the league before moving to Triple A. Myrtle Beach, S.C., Williamsburg and Wilmington, N.C., are among potential replacement sites for the Bulls' franchise.
NO.1 ANYWAY: Florida may have lost to Florida State and may have a rematch in the Sugar Bowl, but the Gators already have clinched No.1 in one poll. The NCAA computer says the Gators played the toughest schedule in Division I-A this season, followed by UCLA, Purdue, Washington and Arkansas.
Orange Bowl foes Nebraska and Virginia Tech ranked eighth and 57th, respectively. The computer says alliance-snubbed Brigham Young and bowl-less Wyoming perhaps didn't deserve what they wanted. Among 111 Division I-A teams, the BYU schedule ranked 71st, Wyoming's 89th.
Rutgers played the Big East's toughest schedule (No.9), while the worst team in the ACC, Duke (0-11), played the league's best schedule (No.13). Or, so says the computer.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB