Gator Bowl picks Clemson over FSU

[Coolyfett]

ACC can't blame Jacksonville for this one

Submitted by Garry Smits

The second and third years of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship football game in Jacksonville resulted in low ticket sales for games matching Wake Forest vs. Georgia Tech and Virgnia Tech vs. Boston College.

And somehow, ACC officials made the implication that it was the fault of the Jacksonville area football fans ... or else they wouldn't have moved the game to Tampa. At the very least, the national media buzz was that Jacksonville couldn't get it done when it came to supporting the game.

Well, now we know ... it's the overall mediocre quality of ACC football and lacklauster championship games that are at fault.

Saturday's rematch between Virginia Tech and Boston College (won by the Hokies 30-12), resulted in ticket sales only a fraction more than last year's game in Jacksonville (53,927 ticket distributed in Tampa, only 715 more than last year). The Associated Press estimated the actual attendance to be less than 30,000. Gator Bowl officials said a bit more than 40,000 people actually were in the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium for last year's game.

Not only was the upper bowl of Raymond James Stadium bare, but many seats on the 50 were clearly unoccupied when the cameras panned the seats during the telecast.

Here's the kicker: ACC officials said Tech and Boston College combined for 4,800 tickets sold. The amazing stat is that perhaps Virginia Tech's reputation for fan support has either dropped off, or they expected to win, and decided to sit out the ACC title game in Tampa since they believed they'd be playing in the Orange Bowl in Miami less than a month later.

The mistake apparently is the ACC's for believing that the game could work in Florida -- or it could work if Florida State played Miami every year, as was the rather arrogant expectation. Maybe hard-core ACC fans were right when they believed the game should have been put in Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium from the beginning, but here's my question: will people in Charlotte buy more tickets than Jacksonville or Tampa fans for a Virginia Tech vs. Boston College game?

Either way, it's now clear support of ACC title games can't be blamed on Jacksonville football fans. The ACC has a few decisions to make. Either move the game to Charlotte and hope a North Carolina team makes it, or impress upon their member schools and alunni base that they need to start supporting this game by purchasing tickets when their team is in it. It's embarrassing, for example, that Boston College has sold a combined 5,000 tickets or so in the last two years for the title game, the first attempts it ever had to win a conference title.

http://www.jacksonville.com/interact/blog/2008-12-07/acc_cant_blame_jacksonville_for_this_one

National media buzz?? WTF? Wow, Jacksonville man this is why I always put an "F" in from of "ESPN" n friends. Look Jacksonville gave it a shot, but the ACC was banking on that FSU v. UM match up...this is some David Stern crap they tried to pull. They even put both teams in different divisions hoping for that match up. Yet North Carolina & North Carolina State are in the same division! Sometimes Jacksonville does some things wrong, but how Jacksonville handled and treated the ACC game was not wrong at all. Media wants to blame Jax? Hell no! Blame FSU & UM for not showing up!! Or better yet blame Wake Forest for showing up. I'm telling you if Jacksonville took the SEC game from Atlanta it would be a totally different story!! What would the media say then? The game needs to be in the middle of the conference geographically. ACC failure is and was not Jacksonville's fault. I mean are there even any major rivalries in that conference? *shaking head*

[thelakelander]

Wouldn't FSU Miami qualify as a major rivalry?

[JeffreyS]

I think ACC's expectations were a little too big. Generally the conference championships sell out if it is a prime match up and do not when the teams aren't as popular. The SEC is the obvious exception but that game has had 16 years to grow. When the ACC has a Clemson, Virginia, North Carolina or FSU  in the game it will do well the other teams won't bring big interest (Miami still a strong TV draw).  Jacksonville also had the problem that the loser went to the Gator bowl a few years in a row I think VT was here 3 or 4 time in 2 years. Even the SEC game you can always scalp cheap tickets at the door many were available again this year.

[hanjin1]

I agree, the ACC just has to wait for Miami and FSU and Clemson to become top teams again. I know how everyone brags how the SEC Championship games are always sold out with huge crowds, but if the game were Vanderbilt vs. Mississippi State. I would doubt there would be as huge of a crowd. If you look at it the bulk of the games always have UF, Tenn, LSU or Alabama, sprinkle in Georgia and Auburn too and you will always have a huge crowd. One thing I didn't understand was why the ACC went with Boston College instead of some other team.

[copperfiend]

They want the Boston TV market. Same with Miami.

[ProjectMaximus]

Thanks Maximus. It was taken from one of the higher floors of the Hyatt during my wedding weekend.

IMO opinion, if we could host the 1st & 2nd rounds of the NCAA tourny, we could take a shot at the ACC tourny.

Ah, congrats on the wedding then. LOL, I said the same thing about the NCAA tourney, and it's true...the venues for the ACC tournament this century have been larger than the smaller arenas in the first rounds of the NCAA tourney.

Didnt the origiginal plans for the arena leave room for expansion. I have been in the arena several times and I cant figure out if that one open end at the top could be expanded.

I do not know. Perhaps?

I don't think there is the market for it. You would also to have a host committee, corporate support and a stadium.

True on the corporate support...which is what I was referring to when I said it would be too costly. Then again...having a low-level bowl game early in the Dec 20-23 range wouldnt require a very large payout to the schools/conferences participating.

As for host committee and stadium, that can be done by the gator bowl assoc. and in JMS. The three examples I cited originally all play both bowl games in the same stadium.

I am not against it. That is actually a really good idea ProMax, what bowl game you got in mind?

I didn't have one in mind...I meant create a new one. It can be the FSU vs. Miami bowl if you want. And then just hope the Noles and Canes drop down to our new bowl game.

[ProjectMaximus]

I agree, the ACC just has to wait for Miami and FSU and Clemson to become top teams again. I know how everyone brags how the SEC Championship games are always sold out with huge crowds, but if the game were Vanderbilt vs. Mississippi State. I would doubt there would be as huge of a crowd. If you look at it the bulk of the games always have UF, Tenn, LSU or Alabama, sprinkle in Georgia and Auburn too and you will always have a huge crowd. One thing I didn't understand was why the ACC went with Boston College instead of some other team.

I agree with you. As for your last line, the ACC had a choice to make between BC and Syracuse. I'd take BC any day, in that comparison.

[tufsu1]

They want the Boston TV market. Same with Miami.

actually they came as a pair....Miami agreed to join the ACC only if the conference would add a school in the northeast...so that Miami's "vast" alumni base in the northeast would be able to see them.

[hanjin1]

Good God, they can barely fill their own stadium

[ProjectMaximus]

actually they came as a pair....Miami agreed to join the ACC only if the conference would add a school in the northeast...so that Miami's "vast" alumni base in the northeast would be able to see them.

Right...that's why it was either Syracuse or BC. Actually, it was gonna be both, but Virginia refused to approve the expansion unless Va Tech was included. The main downside to this was the traveling issue, with only one school so far up north.

[Coolyfett]

Wouldn't FSU Miami qualify as a major rivalry?

Yea maybe...Not like Michigan & Ohio State or Oklahoma v. Texas, but for the ACC I see where it could be major.

[JeffreyS]

FSU and Miami spent the 90s as the premeir rivalry in terms of championship significance.

[ProjectMaximus]

Wouldn't FSU Miami qualify as a major rivalry?

Yea maybe...Not like Michigan & Ohio State or Oklahoma v. Texas, but for the ACC I see where it could be major.

Sorry, cooly, but Id have to agree with the others on this one. I mean, the two you mentioned are possibly the biggest rivalries in college sports, period, so FSU-Miami might not quite matchup to them, but your condescending attitude towards is not fair at all. These two teams may have fallen off in the last decade (and come on, honestly, almost any school in the country wishes it could "fall off" the way these have...FSU has stayed above .500 throughout and continued its bowl streak, and Miami has only had one losing record...ask storied programs like Notre Dame, Tennessee, Michigan, etc) I was born in '84, so the 90s were my formative years of watching sports. And I just remember FSU-Miami being a quasi-national championship game every year.

Doing a quick google search, the FSU-Miami rivalry is on every top 10 list so far and placed ahead of the UF-FSU rivalry. From an article on scout.com 2 weeks ago: "...no matchup has been more important to the entire landscape of college football for a 25-year span more than this one."

"But from 1987 on, this rivalry has been played at a higher level and with more at stake than any in college football history."

From America's Best and Top Ten (from two years ago):

"Since 1987, Florida State has lost out on playing for the national championship five times because of losses to Miami. The two teams have met 13 times in the last 18 years when both were ranked in the top ten. Since 1983, these two teams have combined for more national titles than any other two rivals in the country."

Don't know what more to say...

[civil42806]

FSU and Miami spent the 90s as the premeir rivalry in terms of championship significance.

Its 2008 now though

[copperfiend]

FSU and Miami isn't as big of a rivalry as alot of people think. FSU fans hate Florida alot more than Miami.