Television dictating ACC docket

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech's men's basketball team did something rare Sunday night following its game at Boston College.

The Yellow Jackets checked into a hotel.

They typically return home immediately after road games on school nights. If there's a late commercial flight, they are on it. If not, they charter a plane.

A schedule stocked with midweek games already forces players to miss enough classes. And school always trumps travel convenience for Georgia Tech.

Almost always anyway.

This is Georgia Tech's week to play two Atlantic Coast Conference games in three nights, a scheduling quirk each ACC team will deal with once this year because of the league's television commitments.

Tech faced Boston College on Sunday in a game televised by Fox Sports Net. The Jackets will play Virginia Tech today. Fox Sports South will broadcast that game.

"Television is good, but it's to the point where it's dictating college basketball," said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, whose team took a charter flight from Boston to Blacksburg, Va., on Monday. "We need to stop and consider what's more important, student-athlete welfare or TV?"

Boston College played the ACC's first Sunday-Tuesday combination of the season earlier this month and lost both games - a Sunday showdown at Georgia Tech and a Tuesday tilt versus North Carolina State at home. The travel drained the Eagles, and the lack of preparation time led to an 18-point loss to the Wolfpack.

No one understands the scheduling problems better than ACC Associate Commissioner Fred Barakat, the man charged with league scheduling.

"We've got ESPN, Raycom, Comcast, Fox, College Sports Network, ESPNU ... it's hard to satisfy everybody," Barakat said.

ESPN shows an ACC game nationally at 7 p.m. each Wednesday. The league's other partners, including Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Sports and regional cable networks like Fox Sports South, don't want to compete with ESPN, so they show ACC games on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

TV will pay the ACC hundreds of millions of dollars to show the league's games through the 2010 season. The Raycom/JP contract alone is worth $228 million.

"I don't like it. ... But if we don't do it, that reduces the television dollars, and that is something our athletic directors don't want to hear," Barakat said.

Reach Adam Van Brimmer at (404) 589-8424 or adam.vanbrimmer@morris.com.