ALLAHASSEE - The fate of a presidential election hangs in the balance in the state offices and courtrooms of the Florida Capitol, but that's not the biggest matchup for people in these parts this week.
Instead, it's the football grudge match Saturday between hometown Florida State University and its cross-state rival, the University of Florida.
Both worlds intersected yesterday in a banner being waved outside the Senate chambers, where news conferences about the electoral dispute are held.
''Need a place 2 stay? We're taking offers,'' said the bold lettering, held aloft by two FSU fraternity students.
The members of Pi Kappa Phi seized upon a shortage of hotel rooms in the city to offer six single rooms, each with its own bathroom, in their nearby fraternity house.
The price? ''It's negotiable,'' said Ryan Barr, a third-year international affairs major from Seminole, Fla.
The election dispute between Al Gore and George W. Bush brought a frenzy to this sleepy southern college town a week early. Signholders fill the plaza between the old state Capitol and a 22-story monolith built in the 1980s that serves as home to Florida's government.
When CNN or local TV crews turn on their camera lights, protesters jockey for position in the background.
''This is a great day for democracy and I wanted to be part of it,'' said Michael Myrga, 20, of Greensburg, Pa., a Florida State student and a Bush supporter.
With the debate about hand counts, recounts, and overseas counts not expected to end until Saturday at the earliest, the intersection between the football and political worlds is about to turn into a collision.
A worldwide corps of journalists has invaded Tallahassee, taking every available hotel room. Hoteliers are tense, because they have guaranteed their rooms to the football fans for a year. Some news organizations, however, are refusing to vacate, citing a provision in state law giving squatter's rights to those already occupying a hotel.
''We could take them to court, but it probably wouldn't get resolved until after the inauguration,'' said one check-in clerk over the weekend. Pausing to think about what he had said, he smiled and added: ''Then again, at this rate, maybe not.''
