Since things are so damn slow these days (see the following article), I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about what's going to go on with Hokie Central this fall.

Hokie Central debuted March 12, 1996, so I haven't yet carried it through a football season. As I've stated before, my mission is not to just regurgitate the news and numbers that you can get anywhere else, but to go beyond the news, explain what it all means, and especially, to give you .... My Opinion. Having said that, I will attempt to update HC at least once a week during the football season. I'll try to pass on some of the news I hear on the TV that you remote Hokies might not hear, as well as anything I hear people whispering from the bushes. And I'll try to update "My Opinion" after each game and tell you what I thought, because for me, that's the most fun part about Hokie Central (in addition to the Mailbag).

But, like all of you, I've also got a job and a whole other life, so I can't promise you that I'll be able to stay on top of things like I'd like to. This fall is compounded by the fact that I'm getting married in October, so you can imagine the chaos that's going to cause, time-wise. I'll have to deal with getting married, going on my honeymoon, moving my fiancee into the house with me, blah, blah, blah, etc.

On a more ominous note, simply gaining access to the Internet could be hell come this fall. I've read reports from experts who think there are going to be "brownouts" on the Internet this fall, especially when the students come back. As for my own personal situation, I've got two Internet Service Providers (ISP's). NRVNet is the server where I store my pages, but I also still have my old Virginia Tech/Blacksburg Electronic Village account.

Lately, NRVNet has been busy nearly all the time, due to the fact that they have about 3000 customers and only about 130-150 modems. Tech has been kicking people off their server, and most of them have been migrating to NRVNet, which has received a crush of new customers that they're not ready for. So I've been dialing in through my Tech account.

Well, you can imagine what's going to happen to Tech's server when the students come back in August - more overload. Folks, I may not be able to log in on either account!

So, given the time constraints and possible access problems, Hokie Central might not be updated as much as I'd like this fall. But hang with me. I love doing this stuff (I'm getting 30-50 hits a day, which really feeds my ego), so I'll do the best I can. Go Hokies! - Will

Boy, is it SLOW Around Here...

Geez, I hate this time of year. There is nothing going on with college sports right now, except for endless stories about what athletes are going to jail and why. So, it's a tough time of the year for Miami, ha-ha. I do have a couple of items to pass on, though:

1. I'm sure you've all heard about the "National Championship Game" that has been set up in college football. The Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls have cut a deal with the six major conferences that will place 8 of the top teams in the country in the Big 4 bowls, including a 1 vs. 2 matchup on a rotating basis. This all begins after the 1998 season. The 8 teams in the mix each year will be the 6 conference champions plus 2 at-large picks, or what I call "media darling" picks. Bottom line? From here on out, the Hokies will have to win the Big East, OUTRIGHT, in order to go to one of the Big 4 bowls. We will never, I repeat, NEVER, be selected as an at-large team. Those two slots are reserved for Notre Dame and other TV-friendly schools.

   My big concern is that CBS was sitting on their thumbs when the deal was cut with ABC. CBS has a five-year contract with the Big East and the SEC to televise their regular season games, starting this year, and CBS was on record as saying that they had a commitment to college football. Well, now that ABC has pulled the rug out from underneath CBS (ABC will televise all Big 4 bowls, every year), what does that say about CBS's "commitment"?

   My obvious fear is that after the current contract is up, CBS will bail out, and when the TV bucks leave, the Big East, a young and unstable conference whose stabilizing factor is TV money, will break up. Miami, BC, etc. will get sucked up by other conferences, and the Hokies, who are not TV-friendly, will get left high and dry. I'm telling you folks, I live in fear of that kind of crap every day. See the Mailbag for one reader's cynical but dead-on take on all this.

2. A reader Emailed me and asked what was up with Will Furrer. I poked around and found out that Will (nice first name) played for the Amsterdam Admirals and led the World League of American Football (WLAF) in touchdown passes this season with 20. He also set season records for completions (201) and attempts (368). Our boy may not be amounting to much in the NFL (he jokes that his nickname in Houston is "boo"), but at least he's barnstorming the "We-Laugh" league.

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