mark.berman@roanoke.com 981-3125

Virginia Tech and Virginia have become TV bedfellows because of the Hokies' move to the ACC. Television and ACC officials promise that the schools' football teams won't experience diminished coverage, however.

"The conflict thing is not going to be [happening] that often," ACC assistant commissioner Mike Finn said Monday at the ACC Football Kickoff media gathering in Greensboro, N.C. "People will see as much or more" of the two teams.

ACC games will be carried on ABC and ESPN. The ACC also has a deal with Jefferson-Pilot for a syndicated game of the week. Jefferson-Pilot vice president of operations Jimmy Rayburn predicted that only one of Tech's ACC games this year, the Wake Forest game on Oct.9, might not be carried by any of the three outlets. He predicted only one of UVa's ACC games, the Duke game on Oct.23, might not be televised.

The Tech football team got plenty of TV coverage as a Big East member, when it was arguably the league's second-best TV attraction behind Miami. Big East games air on ABC and ESPN, and the Big East has a deal with ESPN's syndication arm for a syndicated game of the week. Ten of Tech's 12 regular-season games were televised last season - one on ABC (the Virginia game), seven on ESPN and two on the Big East's syndicated network, which included WFXR.

With Florida State, Miami, UVa and a number of other attractive teams in the ACC, it remains to be seen how many Tech games will wind up on the air this season. ABC (whose local affiliate is WSET) gets first choice of which ACC game it wants to air each Saturday, with ESPN second in the pecking order and Jefferson-Pilot third. WDBJ carries the Jefferson-Pilot package in the Roanoke market.

"Virginia Tech and Virginia are going to be on ABC, ESPN or Jefferson-Pilot most every week," Finn said. "Rarely would they be competing against each other for the Jefferson-Pilot [game]. The quality that the Virginia Tech and Virginia programs are, those games are going to see airtime."

Eight UVa games were broadcast last season - three on ABC, two on ESPN, two on Jefferson-Pilot's ACC network and one (the South Carolina game) on Jefferson-Pilot's Southeastern Conference network, which picked up some channels in Virginia for that telecast.

Last year, 24 regular-season games involving Big East teams and 26 regular-season games involving ACC teams aired on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Finn expects 32-34 regular-season games involving ACC teams on those outlets this year. There will be six ACC games in ESPN's Thursday night package this year, up from three last fall.

Tech knows that at least five of its games will be televised this season - the Aug.28 season opener against Southern California and Thursday games against Georgia Tech and Maryland on ESPN; the Dec. 4 regular-season finale at Miami on ABC; and its first ACC game, Sept.18 against Duke, on Jefferson-Pilot. UVa knows that at least three of its games will be televised - the Sept.4 season opener against Temple on ESPN2; the ACC opener, Sept.11 against North Carolina, on ABC; and a Thursday game against Clemson on ESPN.

ABC and ESPN each have until 12 days (or, in some cases with ABC, six days) before a Saturday game to decide if it wants to air it.

Boston College will join the ACC next year, becoming its 12th team. Jefferson-Pilot will air games on 11 Saturdays next year, up from 10 this year. And beginning next year, Jefferson-Pilot will occasionally do regional telecasts for its game of the week, so viewers in Virginia, for example, might see a different game than the one viewers in Georgia are watching.

"There will be very few of our conference games that won't make television, not necessarily this year but in two years," Finn said.

Rayburn said Jefferson-Pilot will never split the state of Virginia and show a UVa game to the eastern half while showing a Tech game to the western half.

"We'd get run out of town," Rayburn said.

Finn said in future years, ESPN might air on the Internet any ACC games that ABC, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot don't want.

Even though Tech is no longer in the Big East, the Big East syndicated game of the week will continue to air in the Roanoke market. The games will move from WFXR to sister station WBVA.