ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 29, 1996 TAG: 9611290057
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
In Mike Mayock, CBS Sports may have the perfect choice as an analyst for the 78th meeting between the state's two NCAA Division I-A football teams.
Like today's renewal of the Virginia Tech-Virginia rivalry at Lane Stadium (2:30 p.m., WDBJ Channel 7), Mayock isn't quite as appreciated as he should be. When Terry Donahue went from the UCLA sideline to last year's bowl assignments as CBS' new No. 1 analyst, some wondered whether he was up to working the Fiesta Bowl.
When Mayock was named to work with Sean McDonough on the No. 2 team for Big East and Southeastern conference games, the question was, ``Mike who?''
The Hokies know who. Mayock's first game for his former employer, ESPN, was as a sideline reporter at the 1993 Independence Bowl, in which Tech beat Indiana 45-20. Mayock, a former defensive back at Boston College and for the New York Giants (1982-84), works in commercial real estate in the Philadelphia suburbs.
He was selling the UVa-Tech game even before he arrived in Blacksburg on Thanksgiving morning.
``Sean and I were doing the Kentucky-Tennessee game last Saturday, and I said then that I thought Virginia Tech was undervalued in the AP poll,'' Mayock said of the 17th-ranked Hokies. ``They're No.9 in the coaches' poll, and that's a hell of a lot closer to where they should be. The perception of them - or both these teams really - is not where it should be.''
Obviously, Mayock's employer shares the national perception of these teams. In a split-national setup with today's Louisiana State-Arkansas game, the Tech-UVa game is going to only 38 percent of the nation's TV homes. Even one of the Big East markets doesn't want the game. The CBS affiliate in Miami is taking the SEC contest. Tech-UVa will be seen from Maine south through North Carolina, west to Ohio, in Tallahassee and Tampa, Fla., and for who knows what reason, to Phoenix and Yuma, Ariz., and Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Mayock, 39, traces the Hokies' lack of respect to the Big East, which ``most people look at as a basketball league,'' he said of a conference that includes his alma mater for both major sports. ``I think, though, that when you take Syracuse and Virginia Tech, if you carve out part of the state of Florida and Nebraska and a couple of other teams, those two can play with everyone else in the country.''
Virginia, a member of the ACC, also has suffered because of its conference's strong hoops image, Mayock said. However, the Cavaliers helped themselves by beating Florida State last season. ``Still, you can't lose to both Georgia Tech and Clemson in the same year and expect to be regarded the same,'' he said.
``George Welsh always has had one of the most solid programs in the country,'' Mayock said of the UVa coach. ``I think George has done more with less over his career than maybe any coach in history. I played against his Naval Academy teams when I was 20 years old. I knew how good a coach he was even then.''
This is the sixth time in the past seven years the Tech-UVa game has been televised, although three of those dates were only on conference network packages. The 1992 game wasn't televised. The '82 meeting at Lane Stadium was the first telecast, and was moved to Thanksgiving night for cable's TBS.
``Specifically, this year this game has two of the better defenses in the country,'' Mayock said. ``It's a good matchup. It just doesn't have the national respect it deserves.''
STAGGERING: The ESPN telecast of the 24th Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl could be blacked out on cable systems within a 75-mile radius of Salem Stadium if the NCAA Division III football title game doesn't approach a sellout.
The first two Stagg Bowls in Salem, both televised by ESPN, were sellouts. Last year's game drew 4,905 spectators to the 7,136-seat stadium, but couldn't be blacked out because it was on ESPN2, which has a no-blackout policy. The NCAA Division III Football Committee and City of Salem organizing committee have the rights to black out again this year. A decision likely will be made by Dec. 11, the Wednesday before the Dec. 14 kickoff.
``I think it's going to depend a lot on which teams we get'' and whether they sell in the 1,000-seat range, said Carey Harveycutter, the Salem Civic Facilities manager and Stagg Bowl director. ``My druthers are that we'd rather not do it, but if we don't sell tickets, we probably would consider it.''
To date, fewer than 2,300 tickets have been sold locally for the game, which in its three years has been marked by a zero wind chill, rain and, last year, snow and ice on the game's eve. Ticket sales are running about 400 behind last year's pace.
PERFECT: Lee Corso, the longtime ESPN college football studio analyst, heads to Tallahassee, Fla., on Saturday with a streak. When the network's ``College GameDay'' has gone on the road this season, the former coach is 7-0 at picking the game the show is visiting. So, who does Corso like in the No. 1-Noa .2 matchup between Florida and Florida State?
``Florida, 35-31,'' Corso said. ``The difference? [Quarterback] Danny Wuerffel and Florida are rested after an off week.'' The one-hour ESPN show airs at 11 a.m. Saturday, leading into ABC Sports' coverage from Doak Campbell Stadium (noon, WSET Channel 13).
AROUND THE DIAL: Virginia Tech's basketball season gets an early or late start, depending on how you look at the clock tonight. The Hokies' date with host Hawaii-Hilo in the opening round of the Big Island tournament hits the air at 12:15 a.m. Saturday on Tech network stations (WSLC 610 AM, locally). There are no telecasts from the Hilo tournament. ABC's golf team in 1997 gets a new tower analyst in Curtis Strange. The Norfolk native will work 10 tournaments, and plans to play in seven of those and head to a seat next to Brent Musburger after his rounds. The best Nielsen ratings of the sports weekend, next to the NFL, of course, probably won't belong to Saturday's Florida-FSU showdown. The Skins Game, with Tiger Woods in the foursome for the first time, airs on ABC on Saturday and Sunday (3:30 p.m., WSET Channel 13). Virginia's Carquest Bowl appearance includes one of the best TV time slots among the postseason games. It's a Friday night (Dec.27, 7:30) and the only bowl competition is the Copper (WAC against Big 12), and that game doesn't begin until 9.
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Mayockby CNB