Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the scuffle for bowl bids, wins, losses, rankings and lobbying surely matter. Television ratings matter more. The bottom line, however, is the bottom line, as WVU proved Tuesday in going deep - into its pockets.
When the Carquest Corp. and television rights owner Raycom expressed doubts about what number Nielsen a WVU-South Carolina game would produce for a CBS telecast, the bowl organizers reminded the game's sponsors that last year's Boston College-Virginia game attracted only 38,516 to Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium.
So, the Mountainers made the Carquest decision easy. They agreed to buy 24,000 tickets. At $35 apiece. That's a lot of gold, and blue, and it does more for your bowl chances than a 7-5 season. The really big deal about this? WVU probably will sell most of those seats.
Syracuse, which two weeks ago snootily snubbed an Independence Bowl bid, will stay home. The Orangemen (7-4) shouldn't feel slighted, because they know how these bowl games are played long before kickoff.
The situation has improved from several years ago, when schools and bowls were cutting - often in cutthroat fashion - early deals. However, thanks to bowl contracts with conferences for second, third and fourth teams, the competition still brings kicking under the family table.
When bowl officials talk to athletic directors, one of the first subjects discussed is how many fans a school might bring. Those potential numbers entered into Virginia Tech getting a Gator Bowl berth and Virginia landing in the Independence.
If all things are equal - as the ACC bowl race behind Florida State was - it comes down to what kind of a selling job a school has done or can do, or what the athletic director says it will do. Reputations can mean as much as records.
When Tech was the Carquest favorite from the Big East Conference before the Hokies moved up a step, that bowl wanted Tech to buy 12,500 tickets. That was going to happen, and the Hokies, who sold about 10,000 tickets for the Independence last year, probably would have sold more than 12,500 to the Carquest.
The Gator Bowl said Tech and Tennessee each agreed to the 8,000-ticket commitment the bowl coalition requires. It's a good bet the Hokies and Vols volunteered to sell more. Dave Braine, Tech's athletic director, won't discuss the Hokies' ticket promise. A source from another bowl said Tech promised the Gator it could peddle at least 12,000. If that figure is in the ballpark, why did Braine make such a promise?
It's good business, particularly since the Gator payout is $500,000 more than the Carquest's $1 million, and a commitment of 12,500 tickets to the Gator is $37,500 cheaper than a similar deal with the Carquest. Besides, Tech officials believe they will sell more than 15,000 Gator tickets, maybe 20,000.
If the Gator were choosing between an ACC second team and the Hokies - and it was Tech or North Carolina State in that picture - Braine would have been wise to commit to more tickets, even if the Hokies couldn't sell them to the game in Gainesville, Fla. That's because as the Big East's second bowl team, Tech had one other option - a Sun Bowl trip.
The Hokies wouldn't have taken nearly as many fans to El Paso, Texas, as to the Gator. Tech was likely to lose money on a trip to the Sun, which chose North Carolina - on its better national recognition for a TV rating - over N.C. State at the end of the coalition selection process.
UVa figures to take a bath in bowl tickets for a second consecutive year. A Carquest official said the Cavaliers sold only about 4,000 of the 14,000 seats they bought last year. Jim Copeland, UVa's athletic director, was required to commit to 8,450 Independence seats.
It's likely UVa won't sell 3,000 of those. Copeland will eat so many seats again that he'll really have to diet. SEEMS LIKE A BIT OF A CHEAP SHOT, AND I DON'T THINK THE AVERAGE READER KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT COPELAND'S DIETING.Could UVa's inability to sell bowl seats for a second consecutive year impact the Cavaliers' potential for future bids? Possibly. The bowls know who goes where and, deservedly or not, the Cavaliers already have a reputation as reluctant bowl travelers.
Did the Peach Bowl's choice of N.C. State over Virginia for the ACC's third berth have more to do with the Wolfpack's 30-27 victory in Charlottesville on Friday or State's lobbying and ticket-selling promises? Well, informed sources say the Wolfpack may have winked at the gentleman's agreement among ACC athletic directors on bowl competition off the field.
And with the bowls, one fact is obvious: It's not always what you can deliver, but what you will promise.
by CNB