THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508290443
SECTION: FOOTBALL '95 PAGE: Z14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COLLEGE FORECAST
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Peering inside the ACC:
NO EXPANSION: The ACC, with nine members, is content to remain the smallest of the major conferences for now. The reason is greed. The league has rich TV contracts that run through the next five years and current members don't want a lesser slice of the pie.
Expanding to 12 teams might be necessary in a few years when TV packages are reworked. Prime candidates are Florida, Kentucky, Boston College or Syracuse - and the door is always open to Notre Dame.
MOST LIKELY: All things eventually end, so which team is most likely to stop Florida State's winning streak against league opponents?
Florida State coaches and some league officials agree that Virginia could have the honor.
The warm-blooded Seminoles already are worrying they might catch the Cavaliers on a cold night at Scott Stadium on Nov. 2.
BIGGER AND BETTER: Both North Carolina and N.C. State are setting records for season-ticket sales and are planning to enlarge the seating capacities of their stadiums.
The Wolfpack is beefing up its schedule. Alabama comes to Raleigh next year and Ohio State visits later.
Both schools also are making room for East Carolina.
NO TOP-POPPING: The most despised rule that the NCAA has come up with in recent years is the one that prohibits players from removing their helmets while on the field.
Some coaches say it could cause heat strokes. Players say it is silly.
The purpose of the rule is to stop players from removing helmets and mugging for the television cameras after a big play.
SLUMPING GIANTS: League officials are supposed to be neutral, but you can't blame ACC brass for hoping Maryland and Georgia Tech make giant recoveries this season.
The teams represent the two largest TV markets in the league and neither is drawing big ratings.
``Maryland is not getting any attention in the East, and we are losing Atlanta to the SEC,'' moaned one league executive.
BEST GAME: Unless you agree that Virginia really does have a chance to beat Florida State in Charlottesville, the must-see game of the year will be the North Carolina-N.C. State battle on Nov. 24.
Both teams have exciting offenses and bowl stakes should be high in the last game of the season for both.
The game is a sellout, but will be televised nationally by ABC.
BIG ON QBs: Eight of the nine ACC teams return senior quarterbacks this season - Virginia's Mike Groh, Maryland's Scott Milanovich, N.C. State's Terry Harvey, North Carolina's Mike Thomas, Georgia Tech's Donnie Davis, Wake Forest's Rusty LaRue, Duke's Spence Fischer and Florida State's Danny Kanell.
Clemson will go with sophomore Nealon Greene.
CAMPAIGNING: North Carolina coach Mack Brown is so infuriated about the ineligibility of tailback Curtis Johnson that he's demanding football players have the same rights as basketball players.
Basketball undergrads can test the draft waters and return to their college teams as long as they don't take money or sign with an agent.
Football players don't have that privilege. Johnson made himself available to the NFL draft last spring but no one picked him.
He went to the Cowboys' camp as a free agent, was cut, and is back at North Carolina working on his degree. But he ineligible to play football.
LITTLE CHANCE: Virginia coach George Welsh has won some national respect for his program, but he says it is too much to ask that the Cavaliers become a fixture in the top 10.
``It might help if we had a 75,000-seat stadium and enough fans to fill it,'' he said. MEMO: Special Section
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