Tampa Seeks To Host ACC Football Championship
DOUG CARLSON
Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 29, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Though the ACC has abandoned hope that it could hold a league football championship game this year, Tampa remains one of several cities interested in hosting the event, which likely will be held for the first time in 2005.

Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau President Paul Catoe wrote a letter last fall to ACC Commissioner John Swofford stating Tampa's interest in holding the game at Raymond James Stadium. Catoe and Tampa Sports Authority executive director Henry Saavedra had been expecting to meet with Swofford next month at the ACC offices in Greensboro, N.C.

However, the Big East isn't letting go of Boston College until next year (when it will get five new members from Conference USA), meaning the ACC won't have the required 12 teams to hold a championship game until then.

Also, the NCAA Division I management council, meeting two weeks ago in Nashville, Tenn., voted 17-7 against the ACC's request for a waiver on the requirement that a league have 12 teams in order to hold a title game.

The NCAA Division I board of directors, a group of university presidents, declined to take up the ACC's fight, effectively killing the issue.

Meanwhile, Tampa plans to be ready whenever the ACC starts to move forward.

"Tampa will continue to aggressively pursue this,'' TBCVB spokeswoman Karen Brand said. "We believe Tampa would be an ideal location for the ACC championship game.''

Tampa will host the ACC basketball tournament in 2007, marking the first time the event will be held farther south than Atlanta. Tampa also won the right to host the 2008 NCAA Women's Final Four, and has hosted three Super Bowls.

But some within the ACC believe the city to beat is Jacksonville, which hosts the top non-BCS team from the league in the Gator Bowl each year. Other cities interested in hosting the eventual ACC football championship game include Orlando, Charlotte, Atlanta and Baltimore.