Miami Was Tempest in the Sugar Bowl : College football: NCAA sanctions resulted in Texas-Virginia Tech, Notre Dame-Florida State matchups.

The bowl picture started to come together last Friday, when Miami asked for swift punishment from the NCAA for its transgressions so it could go on with its athletic life.

The Hurricanes were slotted to play Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl but instead chose to sit out New Year’s Day.

“That’s when everything started to clear up as far as who would be going where,” said Troy Mathieu, executive director of the Sugar Bowl.

Maybe to him.

“We had people from both bowls at our game with Texas A&M;,” said Texas spokesman John Bianco, meaning the Orange and Sugar bowls. “We didn’t know until right before the [Sunday] announcement where we were going.”

The answer was the Sugar Bowl, to play Virginia Tech amid questions of a deal to allow Florida State to play Notre Dame in a more-appealing Orange Bowl.

What happened?

Simply this: The Sugar Bowl sized up a bowl alliance card game in which its partners held most of the chips. The Fiesta was going to get Nebraska-Florida for a national championship.

The Orange Bowl was going to pick third and fifth and the Sugar fourth and sixth from among four teams: Florida State, champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference; Virginia Tech, the Big East representative in the absence of Miami; Texas, the final Southwest Conference champion; and Notre Dame.

The first Orange choice was obvious. “We knew they were going to pick Notre Dame,” Mathieu said.

Then it was the Sugar’s turn.

“All indications were that if we picked Florida State, they were going for Texas for a Notre Dame-Texas rematch,” Mathieu said. “That would leave us with Florida State-Virginia Tech. We looked at Florida State-Virginia Tech and Texas-Virginia Tech and decided that Texas had more to offer.”

Other forces were also at work.

CBS, which will televise the Orange Bowl, loved the idea of a Texas-Notre Dame rematch and was not averse to Florida State-Notre Dame, a sure big-ratings game. Virginia Tech-Notre Dame was another matter.

ABC, which has the Sugar Bowl, wasn’t going to get Notre Dame, but did have an open television window with a game on New Year’s Eve.

“We figure we have a ratings winner,” said Mark Mandel, an ABC spokesman. “And we figure that our partners are happy. The Sugar Bowl has what it wants, and Florida State wanted to play in the Orange Bowl anyway, so it has what it wants.”

So everybody wins, except Notre Dame, which wasn’t eager to play Florida State in Miami and preferred another game against Texas, which the Irish beat, 55-27, on Sept. 23.

The Seminoles recruit heavily in South Florida. Besides, Florida State had played in the last Sugar Bowl, beating Florida.

Texas gets an out-of-state bowl game, which is probably why there were 40,000 phone calls to Austin about the school’s 15,000-ticket allotment on Monday.

Virginia Tech is so excited that it sold 12,000 tickets the first day they were available. The Sugar is a step above any postseason game that has ever invited the Hokies.

“We only get 15,000 [Sugar Bowl tickets], but we figure we could sell 25,000 if they could get them for us,” Jack Williams, media relations director, said.

It’s music to the ears of the Sugar Bowl organizers, who want only to sell tickets and fill hotel rooms, then think about next season, when they get their chance in the bowl alliance to hold the national championship game.