Big bowl bucks bring out the bullies

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1996 by Wayne M. Barrett

"You don't build winning seasons; you schedule them" long has been the axiom of any college football team wishing to break into the big time. That perverse truism, however, has been taken to new heights of absurdity this season by many members of the powerful Top 10. In addition to turning losing programs into winning ones by playing the proverbial Little Sisters of the Poor, the nation's upper-echelon teams have added a new wrinkle. They are piling up blowout after blowout by loading up their schedules with patsies. Even the honorable Joe Paterno - the Pennsylvania State University coach who lost last year's national title because he refused to engage in such shenanigans - has taken to running up the score.

The problem stems from the polls and the new Bowl Game Alliance. For years, the debate has raged over how to crown a national champion properly - and fairly. The old system, whereby certain conferences were tied to specific post-season bowl games, often precluded the best matchups from taking place. For instance, the Southeast Conference champion (say, an undefeated University of Florida) automatically went to the Sugar Bowl,

While the Big 8 champ (say, an undefeated University of Nebraska) had to play in the Orange Bowl. If both the Gators and Corn-huskers won their respective New Year's Day showdowns, who should be ranked number one? Frequently, the polls - Associated Press (sportswriters' vote) and United Press International (coaches' vote) - were split, and two, sometimes three, teams could claim the top rung.

Since having a clear-cut winner is so important to this country's football fans, a playoff system was proposed, in which a handful of the top-rated schools would fight it out in a single-elimination series of games. The idea never took off for a few reasons. First, how is it decided which teams make the playoffs? Again, NCAA football was faced with the prospect of strictly relying on the polls, because if conference champs automatically qualified, then a runner-up from a strong conference could have to stay home while a thrice-beaten champ from a weak conference would be invited to the party.

Second, any playoff structure smacked of the National Football League. While the college game is as greed-driven as the professional ranks, the powers that be are trying to maintain the illusion of "amateurism." Moreover, there was the time factor. Bowl games are a one-day extravaganza; a multi-tiered playoff could take weeks to complete.

Finally, with the number of bowl games burgeoning into double digits, it was felt that many more schools were receiving a reward for having a good season. This is amateur sports, after all, the thinking went, so what's wrong with a bunch of teams going home for the holidays with a winning taste in their mouths? Also, don't forget that bowl games, even "minor" ones, mean its all around.

This season, though, a compromise between bowl proponents and playoff enthusiasts was forged. The Bowl Alliance is taking the champions of five conferences - Southeast, Southwest, Big East, Big 8, and Atlantic Coast - as well as a "wild card," and will match them up in three major bowls: Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta. The "supposed" national championship confrontation will rotate among the three bowls. This year, for example, the Fiesta gets the "big" game, matching the number one and two teams of those selected. The Orange showcases numbers three and five, while the Sugar has numbers four and six.

Why the "supposed"? First, the wild-card slot is stacked heavily in favor of Notre Dame, an independent tied to no conference. If the Fighting Irish are ranked in the Top 12, have eight victories, or have attained a ranking higher than any of the five Alliance champs, they are to be considered for the wild card.

The bigger problem, though, is that the granddaddy of all bowls (the Rose) and the two conferences (Pac 10 and Big 10) that annually clash in Pasadena are not part of the Alliance, due to a conflict over ABC television rights to the game. What this means is an undefeated powerhouse (last season, Penn State) could get stuck against a nominal conference champ and, even if victorious, not figure in the final tally for the national title.

Back to the original premise: Why would Top 10 teams play, and unmercifully bury, so many inferior squads that don't even belong on the same field? The answer, of course, is higher rankings in the polls. Years ago, college football games were played on Saturday afternoons, and the polls came out on the following Tuesday. Now, there are West Coast Saturday night games, and the CNN Coaches Poll (replacing the old UPI poll) is released Sunday morning, Eastern time. The pollsters only can go by the final scores. Consequently, even in lopsided games, coaches are hesitant to pull their first-stringers. Putting in the scrubs can be costly, as Penn State found out last season. With the Nittany Lions up by a bundle over Indiana and just a few minutes to play, the Hoosiers managed a couple of meaningless late touchdowns, making the game seem closer than it really was (judging solely by the final score). Penn State, number one and undefeated at the time, dropped to number two behind Nebraska. Both teams finished with unblemished records, but never were matched in a bowl game. Penn State was committed to the Rose Bowl and Nebraska to the Orange Bowl. Nebraska was declared the national champion.