The sad and unfortunate fact for fans praying for a bowl game ticket is that the supply of tickets has arrived egregiously short of the demand.

You may have seen Phil Smith around town this week. He is not hard to miss.

Smith, a representative from the Orange Bowl committee, has faithfully worn his issued, bright-orange blazer and FedEx Orange Bowl patch as he moves from one State College establishment to the next.

He purpose is simple: He wants to create as much buzz about Penn State's Jan. 3 matchup against Florida State as possible.

And on his road to promoting the event, Smith has been stopped -- sometimes abruptly -- by fans who've expressed their concerns. They're wor-

ried there won't be enough tickets to go around and are disappointed they may be watching the game from home instead of in person because a lottery system has been established to allocate tickets.

Smith, unfortunately, doesn't have all the answers for that. He can tell you Dolphins Stadium in Miami holds about 70,000 people, which means it's no Beaver Stadium. He can tell you that Penn State ended up with slightly more tickets for the game than Florida State.

"Penn State squawked and begged," Smith said. "They got 18,000, and Florida State got 15,000."

When sponsors, those who can purchase tickets via Ticketmaster and anyone else who falls into privileged categories are taken into account, 70,000 seats aren't many after all.

Smith's committee was very impressed with Penn State because of its strength in numbers and its hunger for a first-ever BCS bowl

For the record, the Orange Bowl committee has about 300 members, 100 of whom are active and 25 who do most of the traveling throughout the college football season.

Smith said his committee has been known to walk around a team's tailgating area before games to gauge what type of fans the school has. Usually the major Big Ten schools are covered during the season, and periodically, the committee will land at a school that could potentially make noise below the radar.

Smith said the committee was surprised when Iowa brought more than 45,000 people for its first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) appearance.

The four BCS bowls were certain Penn State would be an attractive draw regardless of placement, but Smith was asked if the Seminoles were legitimate. Ultimately, the committee had no choice, as this year it's tied to the champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"A lot of people say 'Well, does Florida State belong there?' But people have to remember that Florida State beat Miami, and they beat Virginia Tech, and this is another chance for Florida State to beat a top-five team," Smith said. "Between the stripes, that's 60 minutes. They deserve to be in this game."

Smith added that there is little discussion of potential picks between the four major bowls for obvious reasons.

"You really don't want to show your hand because at the end of the day, you're hoping they make the wrong move," Smith said.

This year, he feels his committee certainly made the right move by picking the Nittany Lions to travel south.

"We all have preferences but, at the end of the day, collectively, we try to make the right decision," Smith said. "It's about tourism. We're looking for a good team that travels well."