NCAA Football virginia tech Hokies

The ACC championship game has seen diminishing attendance from the 70,000 plus in the first game in 2005 down to a dismal sub-28,000 in 2008. The problem, it seems, has not been the fact that the ACC has been a collective morass of mediocrity that makes it less attractive for fans to want to make last-minute travel plans to the game. It has nothing to do with teams with smaller alumni bases like Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College making appearances.

How about the fact that they have been held in Florida and only once has Florida State or Miami appear? Good luck getting the ACC to admit that was the expectation when they set it up for the first four games to be in Florida.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

What? You want more liveblogging? The Rose Bowl LiveBlog wasn't enough? Well, it wasn't enough for us either. A short break, and we are coming back with the Orange Bowl.

This is the game where FOX kicks off their BCS game coverage. Announcers that have not paid any attention to college football all season opining on what they are seeing. Lots of ridiculously long and numerous commercial breaks that will totally break up the flow of the game. Needless to say, expectations are low for the production.

As for the game itself, it is Virginia Tech and Cincinnati. The champs of the ACC and Big East. The Big East, has won their last three BCS Bowl games. The ACC has lost eight straight in the BCS.

Will there be any changes to the status quo? Join us around 8:30 PM ET for the fun.

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Orange Bowl (Miami, Florida), which pits Virginia Tech against Cincinnati.

Overview/Matchup: Welcome to the showdown of the century, folks. It's the ACC (Va Tech, BEAMERBALL!) versus the Big East (Cincy, Who?) in a matchup that will determine what major conference was most inept in 2008? The Hokies, as you can see from the capitol letter phrase above, win by playing hard-nosed defense and special teams, and creating turnovers. Cincy wins because Jerry Kelly is a freaking magician.

Hotels: Bowl-travelers descending on Miami will be glad to know that the best spots in town are just a mile or two from the stadium. Many of the finest hotels, restaurants and clubs are in the bay-front area. For luxury accommodation, we recommend the Mandarin Oriental Miami. The hotel's design combines Asian simplicity with Miami flare and the service is world-class. Renovated and rebranded in June of 2008, the Hilton Miami Downtown offers better service and newer guestrooms than most other midrange hotels in the downtown area. Be sure to check out La Brisa Bistro, the hotel's restaurant serving Cuban-accented meals with international flare. If budget is your primary concern, the Rodeway Inn Miami Airport is the spot for you. Accommodations are limited, but the property offers rooms for less than US$100 per night.

The Orange Bowl already has one team locked up -- again, the anti-climatic downside of the BCS Selection Show -- because Virginia Tech beat Boston College for the ACC championship and guaranteed themselves a spot in the Orange Bowl.

The thing that stinks for fans of this game is that the Orange Bowl gets the last pick of all the BCS games, meaning that they get the "leftovers." That's not to take a shot at Cincy, who did win the Big East ... which, um, is somehow worse than the ACC.

On the bright side, the two worst major conferences do get to play each other, so we'll know by the beginning of 2009 which conference really was the most mediocre this past season.

Cincinnati did lose two games -- albeit one to Oklahoma -- and theoretically took care of business.

However, the Bearcats will likely be in trouble come New Year's Day, when whatever analysts FOX assigns to this game will suffocate their ability to perform by reminding them that they have to go head-to-head with "BEAMER BALL!" for four quarters. And when people yell that at you for 60-plus minutes of football, even from the booth, it's a total nightmare.

The thing that stinks about the BCS Selection Show is that, while it's always fun to see mysterious computer rankings unveiled to the public on national television, it's not like March Madness' seeding process, because we more or less already know who's going to end up where. To wit: most of what FOX had to offer in the way of entertainment involved fast-paced graphics, a little screaming, and ultimately the exact matchups we all thought we would see.

BCS National Championship -- Oklahoma Sooners vs. Florida Gators

The Sooners and Gators were named as the pair of teams that will compete for the BCS championship and nearly unalienable right to almost absolutely proclaim themselves the best team in the nation. But, all skepticism aside, it's worth noting that this will be a pretty spectacular game to watch, provided you enjoy seeing lots of offense.

Allstate Sugar Bowl -- Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Utah Utes

Talk about disappointing -- Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide went undefeated all season long until they finally lost a game to the Florida Gators ... in the pre-postseason SEC championship game. And, as a result of all their hard work, the Tide get to play Utah, who, as a non-BCS conference team, is back in the BCS mix again. This time they're without Urban Meyer, and pardon me for being a jerkstore, but an upset Alabama team (with only one loss and somehow unable to play for the championship) is going to throttle-job them.

We'll call today's ACC championship a "Virginia Tech Special." The Hokies had just 222 total yards. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed 11 passes for a mere 84 yards, with no touchdowns an an interception. And yet, the Hokies rolled up 30 points in an easy 30-12 win over Boston College, using the tried-and-true Virginia Tech strategy - play good defense, win the field position game and pound the ball on the ground.

The only thing keeping this from a complete Frank Beamer-led performance is that the Hokies failed to block a punt.

No matter, though, as Virginia Tech repeated its 30-16 ACC Championship Game win over BC from last year. As a result, the Hokies head back to the BCS - a guaranteed spot in the Orange Bowl awaits. The Eagles will wind up somewhere in the postseason as well, probably at either the Chick-fil-A, Champs Sports or Gator Bowl.

The topsy-turvy, back-and-forth ACC race finally came to an end on Saturday, and we ... are right back where we were at this point last year.

Boston College and Virginia Tech will meet in next week's ACC title game, a rematch of the 2007 championship. The Hokies won last season's version, 30-16.

Both teams needed wins today to claim spots in the ACC finale, and neither disappointed. Well, both nearly disappointed. Hosting a Virginia team in need of a win to become bowl eligible, Virginia Tech nearly provided UVa. that big victory. Virginia Tech rallied from 14-7 down to take a 17-14 lead, but saved that lead only after an end zone interception off Wahoo quarterback Marc Verica.

Boston College also got a tough challenge, with Maryland taking the Eagles down to the wire. BC survived 28-21, though, clinching the ACC Atlantic.

The storyline is obvious here: these are two teams looking to get their mojo back. College football just isn't college football (post 1980) without Miami to hate. The program's rebounded a bit this year with a young and explosive roster built with South Florida kids but the pieces just haven't all come together yet.

Meanwhile Virginia Tech is like the little known fourth part of former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca's phrase -- "lead, follow or get out of the way". In the absence of an ability to enthusiastically lead a rudderless ACC, too good defensively to follow and with their peers too inept to get pushed out of the way, Virginia Tech does the one thing its best at -- "get in the way". We'll be watching for another fine stonewalling or a Miami breakthrough.

We'll also be monitoring a pair of other games tonight between Buffalo and Akron (7 ET, ESPNU) and Wyoming and UNLV (9 ET, CBS College Sports). Come join us, the party begins at 730 ET, chat application after the jump.

Otherwise known as Maryland at Virginia Tech. This being the ACC in 2008, this is quite the relevant game. Virginia Tech will do its best to bore us all to tears, but that's why Maryland is such a great foil. The Terrapins are anything but boring.

What other team can get blanked 31-0 by Virginia one week and turn around the very next week and blank a much better Wake Forest team 26-0? Manic stuff I tell ya. But ...crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does!

Current odds have the castrated turkeys and their castrated offense by three points. Something tells me this being played in Lane Stadium has a lot to do with that. Its worth noting that in the killing fields of college football coaching, it looks like Maryland's Ralph Friedgen is one oversized coach not in danger of losing his job this year. It wasn't always that way, but the Terps have rallied in a nice way this year to where they are now 6-2.

Whatever the outcome, we'll be there. Please join us at 730 ET for the live blog and get in on the conversation for College Football's Monday night. Chat application after the jump.

Oh, and we'll also be monitoring the perhaps superior "undercard" between TCU and Utah on CBS College Sports at 8 ET.

Update: we're live!

I suppose when you're heading into a must-win (at least for ACC champion status), nationally televised matchup against a conference rival, you wouldn't want to face a situation where there are three quarterbacks who could possibly be starting for you. And all three of them were complicit in you being ranked amongst the bottom 15% of all Division I offenses. And should the healthiest guy get the nod, it'll be his first start at any position (of which he has played several). People predicted that VT would have its issues on the offensive side of the ball, what with their rampant injuries at receiver and neophyte backfield.

In fact, the one constant was seen as having two guys with significant experience (Taylor and Glennon) ready to man the controls. But both of them had struggled with ankle injuries as of late, leading to former back-up receiver Cory Holt getting the majority of the snaps in practice. In fact, some are wondering whether the fifth-year senior may very well end up starting tonight as something of a "ceremonial" gimme- almost a Senior Night sort of thing. However, don't be surprised if Glennon, reportedly healing more quickly than Tyrod Taylor, ends up trying to save the day for the Hokies if Maryland gets a quick jump.