Some tidbits

One Half is Better Than None

VT’s best cornerback, and leading trash-talker, DeAngelo Hall, was suspended for the first half of the VT-Pitt game for getting into a fight with a Miami player on the sidelines near the end of the game. The Miami player was suspended for the entire game against Tennessee this weekend. VT coach Beamer didn’t think that Hall warranted a suspension, even though the ESPN crew calling the game immediately noted that ejections from a game for fighting almost always result in an automatic suspension.

Tech coach Frank Beamer said he was told by officials that the ejection was not for fighting and the players would not be suspended.

The Big East Conference said yesterday that was not correct. The ejection was for fighting. Hall must sit out a half. Rolle will miss all of Miami’s game against Tennessee because he was not involved in the play when the scuffle broke out on Miami’s sideline after an interception by Tech’s Vincent Fuller.

Beamer said yesterday he planned to ask the Big East “to determine whether that should be classified as a fight.” The league later said “the ruling will not change.”

If the same thing had happened on the field rather than on the sideline, Beamer said, he didn’t think it would be considered a fight.

“It’s regrettable on both sides I think,” Beamer said. “I think it’s a push, and a guy swung at air, really.”

Hall was not available for comment. He was named the Big East’s defensive player of the week yesterday. Hall had 11 tackles and a fumble return for a touchdown against Miami. Hall is also Tech’s punt returner and occasional participant at receiver.

Can’t they make the suspension for the second half? And where is that Big East favoritism to Pitt? Suspend him for the whole game. Show the bias early. Give VT fans more to grouse and complain regarding a conspiracy.

Resources for looking into VT

If you want to do your own look at VT and coverage then here are the best places to go

TechSideLine
HokieSports.com
Richmond Times Dispatch
Roanoke.com
Behind the Net

Oh S**t, What Have We Done?

At least one columnist in ACC country saw the VT-Miami game as a bit of cold water in the face.

Welcome to the present and future of big-time college sports, which may not always resemble the world ACC expansionists envisioned when they trashed 50 years of basketball traditions to accelerate the football arms race.
…
The gung-ho expansionists might have annexed more gung than they bargained for when Miami and Virginia Tech signed the corporate charter and started negotiating entry-fee payment schedules. (Incidentally, those negotiations mattered greatly to Tech, which postponed a scheduled 2004 trip to Louisiana State on the grounds that it desperately needs a $1 million home-game payday. The reason: Transient Tech is still paying Big East entry fees as it prepares to pay Big East exit fees and Big ACC entry fees, which is like financing three car loans at once. A three-car garage can put quite a strain on the budget as Tech attempts to feed its mushrooming football franchise and improve the overall athletics program, which ranks dead last among all competitors in the six major conferences.)

The gung-ho expansionists, who followed FSU’s twisted arrow, might feel more comfortable playing the most recent Big ACC acquisition, Boston College. The Eagles evidently were selected because university presidents wanted a few more library books in the basement before they resumed concentrating on budget books. Plus, BC won’t trample anyone, a middle-packer satisfied to fight for a bid to the Intergalactic Steel-Belted Radial Bowl.

BC offers the illusion of America’s sixth-largest TV market, but that’s about it. Boston viewers follow the Red Sox and Celtics and Bruins and Patriots and Fighting Irish. BC is a private Catholic afterthought, which makes it the perfect complement to Georgetown or St. John’s on a snowy New England night. A Clemson-BC basketball game is even less alluring than a Clemson-Harvard rowing match.

Besides reaching a 12-team inventory and staging a $7 million football championship, what was the Big ACC thinking? Besides cashing larger checks, what was BC thinking?

He’s also got some rather amusing things to say about the halftime show starring Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.