Miami-Virginia Tech Game Will Leadoff ABC's Championship Saturday
Jan. 22, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – ABC Sports has announced its broadcast schedule for “Championship Saturday” on December 1, 2001 – the final regular season Saturday of the college football season – and the Miami Hurricanes’ game against Virginia Tech will be a part of the network’s three-game lineup that day. The champions of all three conferences involved automatically advance to the Bowl Championship Series, with the network projecting the Miami-Virginia Tech as a significant matchup in the BIG EAST Conference title picture.
The network’s national broadcasts on “Championship Saturday” will feature a blockbuster tripleheader, highlighted by national coverage (1:00 p.m., ET) of the clash between the Nokia Sugar Bowl champion Hurricanes and the Toyota Gator Bowl champion Hokies. The game will be played at Blacksburg, Virginia. In last year’s game, Miami knocked off then-No. 2 ranked Tech, 41-21, before a packed house at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
The Miami-Virginia Tech game is the first game of the day. At 4:30 p.m., ET, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl champion Oregon State renews its heated rivalry with Holiday Bowl Champion Oregon in the 105th “Civil War,” a battle for Pac-10 supremacy. The game will be played at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. Last season the Beavers beat the Ducks to advance to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, where they punctuated a Cinderella season with an impressive victory over Notre Dame. The day concludes at 8:00 ET with the telecast of the Big XII Conference Championship Game live from Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. In last year’s Big XII title game, eventual national champion Oklahoma withstood a stout challenge from Kansas State to complete an unbeaten regular season.
“We are extremely happy with our `Championship Saturday’ lineup,” said Loren Matthews, senior vice president of Programming, ABC Sports. “Miami-Virginia Tech and the Oregon-Oregon State `Civil War’ are two of the most intense rivalries in college football. Miami-Virginia Tech will be the centerpiece of our renewed relationship with the BIG EAST Football Conference. In addition, the Big 12 Championship is consistently one of the most anticipated match-ups of the season.”
