Colleges

Tampa takes a new look at ACC game

A committee will consider how to bring USF and other interests together to avoid conflict.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published February 26, 2008

TAMPA - USF football and the ACC football championship game might be able to coexist at Raymond James Stadium after all.

That was the clear message Monday as the Tampa Sports Authority's full board unanimously supported a plan to appoint a committee to find a viable scheduling option that would meet everyone's interests.

"This is what we needed," Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman said. "This is a fresh start."

The seven-member committee will work with the ACC, the Big East and ESPN on a possible multiyear scheduling arrangement that would set up a framework for the ACC game to rotate, if it so chose, between Tampa and another site, perhaps Charlotte.

That would give USF the opportunity to host a nationally-televised league game once every two years during the first week of December, and would give the ACC some certainty about where it would be. Or could be.

"Our interest is both in maintaining a nationally competitive football program that will continue to serve as a catalyst for the Tampa Bay area and in supporting events that benefit the region," USF athletic director Doug Woolard said.

The ACC isn't committing to anything and doesn't have to. Its title game is set for Tampa in 2008 and 2009 then it goes to Charlotte in 2010 and 2011. For the cities to remain ACC title game players, they have to create a buzz for the event and fill their facilities.

Recent comments from USF president Judy Genshaft, that her school was being evicted from its home the first week of December, and from Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio that the city wouldn't bid again for the ACC as a result weren't the buzz that folks had in mind.

Some other leaders believed giving up on the ACC would be bad business think hotel rooms and give Tampa a black eye. Norman jumped in with the idea of a committee, expected to include Woolard, Higgins, TSA executive director Henry Saavedra, Tampa Bay & Co. president Paul Catoe, Bucs director of business administration Brian Ford and administrators from the city and county.

"It seems there's a cooperative spirit to see what's possible," said Michael Kelly, the ACC's associate commissioner for football operations, "and that's encouraging to us."

Brian Landman can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3347.

[Last modified February 26, 2008, 01:07:38]