Virginia Not Ready for Prime Time in Loss : ACC: Florida State wins conference championship in first season, beating Cavaliers, 13-3.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —  Turn out the lights on Florida State and learn what it means to have the switch pulled on you.

The regional TV camera never blinked Saturday night at Scott Stadium because the host team, Virginia, refused to move the night game to day for ABC. The school said it would disrupt “Parents Weekend” festivities.

Never mind the contract with ABC and the College Football Assn. or the $800,000 in television money the Atlantic Coast Conference would have divided.

Or that the Seminoles crawl to television exposure like a desert dog to water. The medium is the message at Florida State, where recruits are exposed to images such as those of “Neon” Deion Sanders and Terrell “Jim Thorpe” Buckley.

The sixth-ranked Seminoles took it out on Virginia in a 13-3 victory before a rain-soaked crowd of 45,000.

Served Virginia right, the Seminoles said.

“They kept us off TV, they’ve got to pay for it,” said Corey Sawyer, the latest in a series of great Florida State cornerbacks. “We were upset because any team should play on TV because of the exposure.”

In truth, this matchup wasn’t game-of-the-week worthy. Both offenses battled their own shortcomings as much as the cold and steady drizzle.

The Seminoles improved to 7-1 and clinched the ACC title--with a 7-0 league record--in their first year as a member.

The Cavaliers, 5-0 at one point this season, dropped to 6-3 overall, 4-3 in the ACC.

Florida State celebrated the ACC title. While some players sprayed bottles of non-alcoholic champagne in the locker room, others shaved the head of running back coach Bill Sexton, who had promised to give up his hair if the team won the ACC title.

“I’m an idiot,” Sexton said.

Seminole Coach Bobby Bowden was more philosophical.

“It’s great to win this ACC championship,” he said. “But remember, this is our first year, and we don’t know what it’s like not to win.”

Florida State would not have won if not for its stubborn defense, which held Virginia to 49 passing yards, and the high-wire act of quarterback Charlie Ward, who passed for a touchdown, ran for another, fumbled two center snaps and threw some passes that almost quacked.

Still, his athletic gifts were too much for Virginia to handle.

It went like this:

Early in the second quarter, with the Cavaliers leading, 3-0, Ward dropped a snap out of the shotgun formation, picked up the ball and heaved it toward the left corner of the end zone, where receiver Tamarick Vanover outjumped Greg McClellan for a 27-yard touchdown.

With 27 seconds to play in the third quarter, Ward turned an aborted pass play into improvisational dance as he tip-toed a 16-yard path to the end zone to put his team up, 13-3.

Late in the fourth quarter, needing 17 yards on third down to extend the drive and consume the clock, Ward broke out of the pocket, slithered his way down the sideline and stuck out his toe just as he was forced out of bounds.

He gained exactly 17 yards. Ward completed only 11 of 29 passes for 128 yards, but he gained 63 yards in 11 carries and made big plays when it counted.

“I think the coaches are going to have to go back to the drawing board to play a quarterback like that,” Virginia Coach George Welsh said. “He’s a Randall Cunningham-type player.”

Ward reminds some teammates of Gregory Hines.

“Charlie’s awesome,” fullback William Floyd said. “He has great athletic ability, great vision. We call him the ‘Tap Dancer.’ ”