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By BRIAN LANDMAN, Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2001
ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. -- Clemson coach Tommy Bowden is patient, but he knows his school needs to get cracking on plans to upgrade its football facilities.
"A young man, 18, he'll want to hear about national championships and he'll want to see with his eyes a visual commitment when he walks on campus that you're committed to it, and right now, we've lost that advantage," he said Monday.
Virtually every other Atlantic Coast Conference school has spent or is spending millions on its stadium or weight room or locker room. Clemson has approved plans for a state-of-the-art football facility, yet no earth has been moved on the $20-million project.
"We've got to keep up with the Joneses and we haven't," Bowden said. "But the administration is committed to it."
He added that he's meeting with officials Thursday to discuss where things stand.
ON THE BOWL FRONT: ACC officials believe the Sunshine Classic, formerly the Micronpc.com Bowl, will be played in Orlando on Dec. 21, pitting the ACC's No. 4 or 5 team against an opponent from the Big 12. The question is when the deal gets done and who the title sponsor will be.
The NCAA has extended a deadline for the game's sanction, and officials close to the game say Walt Disney World Inc. is helping find a title sponsor.
Florida Citrus Bowl executive director Chuck Rohe is on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment; other officials declined comment.
The ACC cleaned up one bit of bowl business when it salvaged the Jeep Seattle Bowl for its No. 4 or 5 team. The bowl, moved this year from Hawaii, will be in Seattle this year, then move to Charlotte.
A WOLFPACK VOW: North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato said he wanted to "clear the air" on the impact that marriage might have on his star sophomore quarterback, Philip Rivers.
"We really have no barometer to say what kind of season Philip had last year," Amato said. "He had great stats, but maybe in reality it was a bad year for him. Maybe in reality, it was the greatest thing and he'll never come close to it again. But no matter what his stats are this year, it'll have nothing to do with him saying, "I do.' "
Rivers, 19, the ACC rookie of the year after completing 237 of 441 passes for 3,054 yards and 25 touchdowns, married his high school sweetheart, Tiffany, on May 19.