ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 29, 1996 football TAG: 9612310027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: MIAMI
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Virginia Tech is like the new kid in an old neighborhood with tradition.
You know, the kid who gets picked last when they choose up sides. Nobody is quite sure about the name, but the kid tries to fit.
For the second straight year, the Hokies were the sixth - and last - pick of the Bowl Alliance. They don't care. They're in the game.
Although they're ensconced in plush pastel beachside digs and are still somewhat naive about such an experience, the Hokies are trying to do more than win an eighth straight game over a ranked opponent.
Last year in the Sugar Bowl, Tech had a New Year's Eve party against Texas. On Tuesday night, the assignment is bigger and badder. Really though, facing sixth-ranked Nebraska is no pressure for the Hokies.
If Tech gets squashed, well, it's supposed to happen. If the biggest underdog in this year's bowl games wins or keeps it close, it will only enhance the Hokies' reputation, which could use some polishing in more ways than one.
On the periphery, Tech would like to hope that its football success will translate into something bigger from the football league in which it has won or shared two straight championships.
Yes, the Hokies have won a conference-best 37 games in four years since the Big East began playing round-robin football. They're 20-3 in the last two seasons.
Other numbers are what could get Tech what it wants, which is all-sports membership - something only Tech and downtrodden Temple lack among the football players.
``Does Virginia Tech's performance in football enhance the possibility for Big East membership in all sports?'' repeated league commissioner Mike Tranghese. ``It doesn't hurt. That said, we have not and are not expected to talk about expansion in any form anytime soon.''
Tech can't become any hotter a commodity than it is now, particularly with something of a rebuilding season forecast for football in 1997. So, how do the Hokies turn that into arm-twisting?
They don't. The 13 schools that play Big East basketball, including six football foes of Tech, know the numbers. Unless Tech and its gridiron brethren are willing to share some of their riches with Georgetown, St.John's and other dribblers, it likely won't matter.
In the 1995 and '96 football seasons, the Hokies have earned $11,166,468 from Big East bowl and television appearances. That's almost $4 million more than Syracuse, No. 2 on the cash list.
The football members of the Big East will bring in $26.7 million this year. The non-football players don't share in that. Short of the Big East voting to give a percentage of the greater football dollars to basketball, Tech has no inside leverage for all-sports inclusion.
``The basketball schools have no interest in going to 14,'' Tranghese said. ``Most of these issues [potential expansion and scheduling changes that come with it] in their minds are negatives.''
Tech's best opportunity to get in the Big East carrying more than a football would be for some other league to express an interest. That isn't on the horizon. Tech athletic director Dave Braine continues to quietly lobby his fellow ADs, however.
``He's handled it right,'' Tranghese said. ``He's reiterated it to me, repeatedly, that Virginia Tech wants to play more than football with us. He's not out there campaigning publicly, which is the only way to go about it.''
The Hokies wisely have separated themselves from Temple in any all-sports campaign. The Owls are under Big East scrutiny simply to comply with several ``program quality'' requirements in football.
No one in Big East football would be surprised to see Temple gone from the league, if not the sport, by 2000. If the Owls leave Tech as the only Big East football-only member, would it help the Hokies in other sports? Probably not.
If Tech pushes too hard to make a case for its entire program, the Big East basketball members will no doubt ask the Hokies what their admission to the football league has meant to the Southwest Virginia school.
It's an $11 million answer. There's no way Tech would have been in the Gator, Sugar or Orange bowls the last three years without Big East membership.
So, whether or not the Orange Bowl experience for the Hokies becomes worth remembering for more than a few days at the beach, even as the beast of the Big East in one sport, they won't be kicking sand in the faces of their brethren.
It's one thing to beat Miami twice in a row, which the Hokies have done. It's another to take a trip to Providence and Seton Hall.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB