THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130747
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 55 lines
The Virginia Tech football team, ranked No. 19 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, plays on a national stage Saturday when ESPN carries the Tech-Boston College game at 12:30 p.m.
That's great for the Tech program. What's not so great is the timing.
If ESPN play-by-play man Brad Nessler, analyst Gary Danielson and sideline reporter Adrian Karsten do their jobs, they'll tell the national audience about Tech's troubles in recent months, which include arrests of Tech players on charges ranging from shoplifting to disorderly conduct.
And there's the fight last week which ESPN surely will not ignore.
Tech officials would prefer ESPN talks of other things, such as the team's 11 straight victories. ``The negative publicity hurts the program and the whole university,'' said Tech athletic director Dave Braine.
To ease the hurt, there is money. ESPN will pay Tech $125,000 for the Boston College game, which is in addition to the Hokies' share of the Big East's contracts with ESPN and CBS. Each Big East team will receive a minimum of $500,000 from this year's TV and bowl contracts.
When Tech plays on CBS on Sept. 28 against Syracuse and again on Nov. 29 against Virginia, the appearances add up to serious money - $233,500 for each CBS game.
Three other games of note Saturday: Virginia in an ACC home game against Maryland (noon, WAVY), East Carolina at West Virginia (noon, WTKR) and Purdue at Notre Dame (2:30 p.m., WVBT). The Notre Dame-Purdue game is an NBC telecast that moves to WVBT; NBC affiliate WAVY does the bulk of WVBT's programming.
Pay-per-view alert! The 3:30 p.m. games are Brigham Young-Washington and Michigan-Colorado. Cost: $9.95.
With CBS back in the business of covering college football with 28 games including four bowl games, sofa slugs here never had it so good. There are college games on ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2, pay-per-view, six Notre Dame games on NBC (WVBT locally) and 10 ACC games on Channel 10, with two on WVBT.
And let us not forget Home Team Sports. The regional sports network that beams Baltimore Orioles baseball into Hampton Roads also has a 41-game college football package. At noon on tape Saturday, HTS shows the Howard-Hampton U. Coca-Cola Classic being played tonight at RFK Stadium in Washington.
This is the 11th year that WGH radio (1310) has carried local high school football play-by-play. This weekend, it's all Peninsula with Phoebus-Kecoughtan Friday at 7:05 p.m., and Warwick-Hampton Saturday at 7:05.
We couldn't mention WGH without bringing up the fact that Tony Mercurio marks the 10th anniversary of ``Afternoon Sportstalk'' on Monday at 2 p.m. ``Back then when we started, nobody thought a local sports talk show could succeed on a weekly basis, much less every day,'' said Mercurio whose guest list is a diverse one - from Don King to Tommy Lasorda, from O.J. Simspon to Dwight Gooden. So, what's the surprise that the WGH bosses are planning for Tony on Monday? MEMO: Your comments and questions about radio-TV sports are welcome.
Call Infoline 640-5555, press 2486. by CNB