
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 17, 1994                   TAG: 9412200024
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOTTFRIED'S GOT REASONS FOR A I-A FOOTBALL PLAYOFF

On the air, Mike Gottfried often sounds like a coach. That's no surprise, because the ESPN football analyst spent 12 years as a college head coach at four schools. However, there's one subject on which Gottfried differs from most of his former sideline peers.

He says Division I-A football should have a national championship playoff. Gottfried, who worked his second straight Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl telecast a week ago in Salem, said the money that would be generated by Division I-A playoffs and a national title game isn't the only the only reason.

``After seeing the Stagg Bowl and being involved in the I-AA playoffs [as Murray State's coach in 1979], I know the championship should be decided on the field,'' Gottfried said last weekend. ``It should be a playoff with a minimum of eight teams and a maximum of 16, like in the other divisions.

``All of the reasons people give for not doing it aren't good enough. You could still keep the bowls, and incorporate the playoffs into some of them. The idea it would last too long and take too much class time? That's too much bull. You can never convince me a Division I player is any more of a student than a Division III player, and they do fine with a playoff.

``You could do this tomorrow, but it won't happen, and there's only one reason. It's too logical, and college football is too disorganized to deal with logical.''

Gottfried, 49, is finishing his fifth season on ESPN after I-A head coaching stops at Cincinnati, Kansas and Pitt following three seasons at Murray, where Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was Gottfried's defensive coordinator. Gottfried won't say he won't coach again, but it seems unlikely. He enjoys TV work, and he gets to coach two teams on the air.

He said college football needs ``a commissioner, someone to oversee the whole thing,'' but he likely wouldn't be the man for that job. He would probably say what he thinks too often, where a politician is what's needed. He is sure a Division I-A playoff would cure many of the financial ills in college sports, however.

``The problem in college football, the way it is now, is you can't afford an up ramp in your season,'' Gottfried said. ``If a team loses early, like say Kentucky did to UCLA [two weeks ago] in basketball, it's out of the picture in football. If you had a playoff, a Michigan could lose to a Notre Dame early and still be in the picture to play for No.1.

``The thing you don't know, the way it is now, is who's playing best when it should count. A playoff system would help coaches. They wouldn't panic if they lost early. Right now, you lose a game in September and basically, it's over.''

Gottfried said that 15 bowls could fill the playoff structure. Yes, 38 Division I-A schools get bowl bids now, and that's one reason most coaches are against a playoff - fewer teams would be rewarded. However, Gottfried said there's no reason some 7-4 teams couldn't play in bowls outside the playoffs. Do 6-5 teams deserve bids, anyway?

``People say, well, the Independence Bowl might have a tough time drawing a crowd,'' Gottfried said. ``We can fix that. Let's play Alabama-Ohio State in the first round of the playoffs down there. It would be a meaningful game. The place would be packed. Take the top five bowls and rotate them for the national championship site.

``Behind the playoffs, have a second tier of bowls - we have one of those now, right? - for the teams not quite good enough for the playoffs. The reward would still be there. There's an NIT in basketball, isn't there?''

Gottfried said the time a student-athlete spends on football wouldn't have to be extended much except for perhaps the Final Four teams. The current college football season extends 14 Saturdays anyway.

``Tell teams they can't have five open dates during the season,'' Gottfried said, exaggerating only slightly. ``Play 11 weeks in a row. Then play the playoffs. They do it in Division I-AA. It's not going to happen the way things are now. College football is so badly run, organization-wise, at the top, it's almost funny. It's not really run in the base interest of the sport.''

Gottfried said he doesn't know what a I-A playoff and national championship would generate, but he figures $100 million would be conservative. Last year, the 19 bowls involving I-A schools grossed $89 million, of which $70.75 million was paid to the competing teams.

``A 16-team playoff would be the biggest event in sports in this country,'' Gottfried said. ``The interest would be huge. It would be bigger than the NCAA basketball tournament. It would be bigger than the Super Bowl. And it would decide the champion on the field.''

by CNB