Hokie football fans everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief at Sunday's news that Tech will be playing North Carolina on January 1st in the Toyota Gator Bowl.   The Heels are ranked #5 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and #7 in the Associated Press poll.

Although a game with Georgia Tech was attractive, the Carquest Bowl, where that game would have occurred, is not nearly as attractive to most Hokie fans as the Gator Bowl and Jacksonville.

My own personal guess is that Tech would have taken much less than 10,000 fans to Miami for the Carquest (perhaps as few as 5,000), but I think we'll take at least 15,000 to Jacksonville.  The game will be held in newly renovated Jacksonville Stadium (I don't know the official name of it yet), home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.

I have put some North Carolina links over on my Links Page in anticipation of the game.  Tickets go on sale at the Tech ticket office (1-800-VATECH4) at 9:00 a.m. today.  Give 'em a call, and let's show up in force!

At the Pepsi Challenge this past weekend, the Hokies came close to beating #5 South Carolina and gave #2 North Carolina all they could handle for about 30 minutes.  Be sure to check out the Basketball Page for reports on the games.  You don't want to miss my tirade about the South Carolina loss!

And get your butt to the Cassell on Wednesday night at 7:00!  The Hokies play against Radford U. - whom they've only played once, oddly enough - in a New River Valley showdown.  Be there to welcome the Hokie hoopsters back to Blacksburg!

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