<p>Gator Bowl wants Clemson or no ACC team</p>
<p>Bowl officials butting heads with conference over what happens if Georgia Tech loses in title game</p>
<p>Wednesday, November 29, 2006</p>
<p>BY LARRY WILLIAMS</p>
<p>CLEMSON - The Gator Bowl's desire to fill its stadium with Clemson orange could end up jeopardizing its relationship with the Atlantic Coast Conference.</p>
<p>Mike Hartley, chairman of the bowl's selection committee, said Tuesday that the Gator Bowl Association and the ACC are trying to resolve contrasting and contentious interpretations of the new "one-loss rule" that the conference applies to its bowl-selection process.</p>
<p>Hartley said his bowl could end up not selecting an ACC team at all this year if the debate isn't resolved to the Gator's liking. That would no doubt rankle the conference and its other seven contracted bowl partners.</p>
<p>"If we can't work this out, we could take a Big East team and match it against a Big 12 team," Hartley said. "We don't want that to happen, because that leaves all parties in the ACC in a position that is not pleasant. I'm not saying that's what we'll do. But at some point, we have to sell tickets for this bowl game."</p>
<p>The Gator Bowl, scheduled for Jan. 1 in Jacksonville, has made no secret of its desire to match Clemson with a team from the Big 12 or Big East. That won't be any problem if Georgia Tech beats Wake Forest in Saturday's ACC title game in Jacksonville, but things could get interesting if the Demon Deacons win.</p>
<p>The ACC's one-loss rule prohibits a bowl from taking one team over another that has two fewer conference losses. Clemson finished 5-3 in the ACC and Georgia Tech finished 7-1, so the rule would preclude the Gator from passing on the Yellow Jackets if the Chick-fil-A Bowl takes Virginia Tech (10-2, 6-2).</p>
<p>The Gator Bowl and the ACC have a new four-year contract that has not been signed. The bowl says it added a provision that keeps it from having to select the title-game loser. The conference is now telling the bowl that the one-loss rule supersedes the provision.</p>
<p>Rick Catlett, president of the Gator Bowl Association, said he's confident the issue will be worked out amicably before Sunday.</p>
<p>"We've been a partner with the ACC since 1993 and have an unbelievable relationship," he said. "It's just a matter of working through some of the details. We never anticipated this situation with the contract language. It's just going back and forth."</p>
<p>Clemson is known for its ability to bring large numbers of fans to bowl games. If the Tigers (8-4) don't end up in the Gator, they'll likely fall to the Champs Sports, Music City or Meineke Car Care bowls. Hartley said Georgia Tech can make a favorable impression by bringing a lot of fans to Saturday's game, but the Tigers remain the Gator's main target.</p>
<p>Hartley and other bowl representatives said they are proceeding under the assumption that the Chick-fil-A selects the Hokies, who have won six consecutive games. Last year's Gator Bowl drew 63,780 fans, the bowl's lowest turnout in five years.</p>
<p>"Our focus at this point is Clemson," Hartley said. "The ACC's position is they'd like to have a New Year's Day bowl for Georgia Tech to go to. That's a hard decision for us. We understand their argument, but they have to understand ours. We want to sell tickets. This is all totally up in the air."</p>
<p>Last year's inaugural ACC title game between Florida State and Virginia Tech fell short of selling out, and Hartley said the bowl made a mistake by inviting Virginia Tech back for a matchup with Louisville. With almost no hope that Saturday's title game will come close to filling up 76,000-seat Alltel Stadium, Hartley said the bowl will do whatever it can to avoid taking a financial bath twice in a month.</p>
<p>"We don't want in any way for Georgia Tech to feel like we don't want them," he said. "But the losing fan base just doesn't want to come back to the same city 30 days later."</p>
<p>ACC spokeswoman Amy Yakola referred questions to Mike Finn, the conference's associate commissioner for football operations. Finn did not return a phone message.</p>
<p>The ACC has been represented in the Gator Bowl 11 straight years and 14 of the past 16. This year, the Chick-fil-A moved ahead of the Gator in the bowl pecking order and gets first pick of ACC teams after the Bowl Championship Series.</p>
<p>The ACC title game, which is run by the Gator Bowl Association, is in its second year of a two-year contract with the Gator Bowl Association. The conference has yet to announce whether it will exercise a two-year option to keep the game in Jacksonville in 2007 and 2008.</p>
<p>"We took on the ACC championship game pledging that it would sell out, and we have not done that," Hartley said. "We've sold an awful lot of tickets, but with two smaller schools and not a ton of local interest, it's just a tough sell. There are certainly some losses on that side where the ACC is going to reevaluate what they do with the conference championship game.</p>
<p>"This is a difficult, difficult year for the Gator Bowl to take a further loss just to be certain that we stand by a conference friend."</p>