A date with Florida State being something easy?

No chance of that, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer says.

While the oddsmakers love Tech enough to make it a two-touchdown favorite, Beamer knows the Hokies can't expect any such affection from the troubled Seminoles in Saturday's inaugural ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla.

"We're pleased to be in the game, but I don't know that we're pleased about [seeing] Florida State," Beamer said. "Since I've been here, we're 0-6 vs. Florida State. I think we've lost 11 consecutive games to Florida State, we haven't beaten them since 1975, so I'm not sure this is a great opponent for us if history has anything to do with it."

While some of the Florida media hounds have their picks and shovels out, all set to bury the sliding 'Noles, Beamer already has started to convince his players to beware of the wounded.

"I think they're a lot more dangerous now," Tech tailback Cedric Humes said. "Some people are going, 'ah, they've lost three times in a row and all this,' but they're a very talented team. They're going to come in with a chip on their shoulders. It's a championship, we know they're ready, and we're expecting them to play their best game of the season.

Since starting the season 5-0 and climbing to No. 4 in the country, FSU has lost four of its past six games, including three in a row for the first time in 22 years. Forced into playing a lot of young, not-ready-for-prime-time players because of a litany of injuries, legendary coach Bobby Bowden's latest edition doesn't come close to resembling past powerhouse units out of Tallahassee.

"I know they've had some tough luck lately and some people are writing them off, but I promise you, I'm not writing them off," Beamer said. "This is a talented team and they could click at any second. We had better get ready to play one heck of a football game."

He can still laugh

As bad as things are going for his club, Bowden chuckled when he was informed that Beamer had been told this may be his time to finally get the 76-year-old coach.

"He might get it all back in one year, right?" the affable Bowden said.

"The thing that amazes me about this club is we started so doggone good and then, all of a sudden, we haven't been able to do it. Frank has played that way all year, although, and I think he'd agree, he did have one Florida game -- the University of Miami," added Bowden, referring to his team's 34-7 blowout loss at Florida last Saturday.

Not nearly enough

Counting a pair of shared titles, FSU will be gunning for its 12th championship in football since joining the ACC in 1992. So what, senior center Robert Castillo said.

"We don't define a season as a success unless we win the national championship." Castillo said. "That's the way we've always looked at it. I don't care if we lose one game and we're a top-five team, if we don't win the national championship, it's not a success by Florida State's standards. We don't settle for anything less."

Odds and ends

FSU starting defensive end Kamerion Wimbley, who has missed the past three games with a sprained MCL, said Tuesday he expects to play Saturday. ... ACC commissioner John Swofford said there are a "a few tickets left" for the game at Alltel Stadium. Swofford said a crowd between 75,000 and 77,000 is expected. Tickets may be purchased on ticketmaster.com. ... Each school was allotted a minimum of 8,000 tickets, with another pool of 4,000 tickets available for each. ... Combined with television rights fees from ABC, Swofford said the league will reap approximately $11 million from the game.

Bowl Championship Series rankings

RANK/TEAM HARRIS INTERACTIVE USA TODAY COMPUTER AVERAGE TOTAL

1. Southern California 1 1 2 .9861

2. Texas 2 2 1 .9737

3. Penn State 3 4 3 .8990

4. LSU 4 3 7 .8487

5. Virginia Tech 5 5 5 .8337

6. Ohio State 6 6 4 .7971

7. Oregon 8 8 6 .7453

8. Notre Dame 7 7 10 .6944

9. Miami 10 10 8 .6609

10. Auburn 9 9 11 .6385

11. West Virginia 13 12 9 .5814

12. UCLA 11 11 12 .5633

13. Georgia 12 13 13 .5301

14. TCU 15 15 14 .4595

15. Alabama 14 14 16t .4485

The BCS formula consists of three parts: A school's ranking in the Harris Interactive and USA Today polls and the average ranking by six computer formulas. The Nos. 1 and 2 schools in the final BCS standings will compete for the national title.

Virginia Tech's computer rankings: 5 --Anderson & Hester, 3 -- Billingsley, 4 -- Colley Matrix, 5 -- Massey, 5 -- Sagarin, 5 -- Wolfe. (The highest and lowest rankings are thrown out.)