Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 11, 1994 TAG: 9401110057
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Medium
But many believe this may be the only way for an NCAA playoff to ever come into being.
The CFA, which takes in every major football school not in the Big Ten or Pac-10, is thinking about staging a national championship game of its own. Depending on what the 66 CFA schools decide at their meeting in June, there could be a CFA playoff plan on the agenda at next January's NCAA convention no matter what the NCAA decides to do.
Any playoff plan would need a majority vote of the 106 Division I-A schools. Would the Big Ten and Pac-10 try to stop their CFA brethren from having their own championship?
"I think we would oppose it," said Pac-10 executive director Tom Hansen. "On the grounds that once it got its nose under the tent, you don't know what would happen.
If the CFA plan had been in effect this past season, No. 2-ranked Notre Dame and No. 1 Florida State could be staging their final showdown this week. Or, with a four-team CFA format, fans could be treated to a championship match between the winners of semifinal games pitting Florida State and Notre Dame and Nebraska and a fourth team.
And once the CFA got going with a successful playoff, wouldn't public and alumni pressure force the Big Ten and Pac-10 to join the party?
"One Might think so," said DeLoss Dodds, Texas' athletic director.
A network paying big money for the rights to a CFA playoff game would be gambling that CFA schools would go into the bowl season in the top spots in the polls.
"Although the [CFA schools] have sort of dominated the No. 1-No. 2 games the last three or four years, if someone paid $20-30 million for a single game and found out the No. 1 or No. 2 team is in another group, it would be a tremendous financial risk," said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.
"There would also be some vulnerability for the Rose Bowl," he said.
Big Ten and Pac-10 presidents have reiterated their opposition to a playoff. In an awkward spot is Penn State's Joe Paterno, who has long spoken favorably of a playoff. Now that the issue is coming to a boil, the coach's school has joined the Big Ten.
"If, all of a sudden, the NCAA comes up with a plan the majority of [Division I-A members] feel is appropriate, then the Big Ten presidents have another decision," Paterno said.
by CNB