OK, so the Orange Bowl isn't being torn down. But it is being vacated by Miami after this season. And after losing the Dolphins and then the Orange Bowl game itself, there won't be anything big in the sports world going on at the dilapidated stadium.
And that state of disrepair is the big reason Miami went searching for a better deal up the road at Dolphins Stadium. It's not as if the Hurricanes already play on campus, or that they come close to sellouts on a regular basis. I can still hear Doc Walker mumbling about pride and pageantry and great atmosphere while he called last year's North Carolina-Miami game. At the same time, an overhead shot of what turned out to be a crowd of 29,621.
That's one heck of an atmosphere.
It's funny, though, how grumbling about the place was relatively muted when the Hurricanes were winning national titles. But the past couple years, complaints about "facilities" -- a perennial marker of excellence in the college athletics arms race -- have led some to think it was a miracle The U ever contended for championships.
I'll take an educated guess and say the attractive weather in South Florida, the ridiculously fertile recruiting territory within a couple hours of Coral Gables and the perpetual winning had more to do with those titles than the stadium. All three are still in place, which is why when the 'Canes play host to Virginia on Nov. 10 in their home finale, I suspect they'll be ranked somewhere in the top 25 and be well on their way to a bounce-back season.
