ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
A tidy, logical conclusion to a pretty much overlooked piece of the college football season will be played Saturday at Salem Stadium. It's the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. It's the Division III national championship.
It's time Division I-A had one of those, too. The NCAA shouldn't just want it; it should demand it. It works in divisions I-AA, II and III. A playoff system not only will work in I-A. It will be fair. It will make more money for the schools than the bowls, combined. You couldn't count the number of office pools with brackets. Television would love it.
The Bowl Alliance, like the less-organized Bowl Coalition before it, proved again Sunday that it doesn't work. The Super Alliance, which will integrate the Rose Bowl starting in 1998, won't work, either. Don't blame the polls. Blame the bowls.
The snub of fifth-ranked Brigham Young by the alliance is only part of the problem. Don't blame the Fiesta Bowl, although once the Tempe, Ariz., game selected Penn State as the No.3 alliance pick, the Cougars knew they were going to the Cotton Bowl. The alliance isn't only flawed because it uses opinions - polls - as part of the selection criteria.
``It defies logic,'' Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said of the slap at his league's champion.
Whoever said the bowl system was logical? That's only one reason why the NCAA Presidents Commission should go into its files and dredge up the 1994 subcommittee study on a I-A championship - and this time do something with it.
The alliance is a sham because it isn't run by the NCAA, which is supposed to be the governing body for college athletics. The alliance is ruled by the commissioners of four conferences, the same men who spend most of November lobbying to position their own teams in the alliance. Even before Nebraska lost to Texas, Big 12 commissioner Steve Hatchell had been twisting the Fiesta's arm about taking Colorado for an at-large spot.
The Fiesta was the obvious spot for BYU (13-1), speaking geographically. However, this is the same bowl that two years ago took a 6-4-1 Notre Dame team into the coalition. The Fiesta took Penn State over BYU for TV ratings. Period. And how many folks outside the Sunshine State are wowed by a Florida State-Florida rematch in the Sugar Bowl?
``Once the top game is picked,'' said SEC commissioner and alliance coordinator Roy Kramer, ``the alliance stays out of it and the integrity of the process is held up by the bowls making those selections.''
Fine, except that the integrity of the process isn't held up, in the alliance or with many lower-tier bowls. The bowl system is about selling tickets, TV ratings and conference strength. The WAC has 16 teams stretching from Hawaii to Texas. Obviously there's no strength in numbers.
Wyoming went 10-2, missed winning the WAC over BYU in overtime, and didn't get a bowl bid. California (6-5) got a Pacific 10 slot in the Aloha Bowl, despite losing five of its last six games. The Cowboys were told they didn't get the WAC's No.2 slot ahead of Utah (8-3) in the Copper Bowl, because they took only 3,500 to that game in 1993.
``It's no longer for the kids,'' said Wyoming athletic director Lee Moon, a Roanoke native who saw how well a playoff system can work before he left Marshall for the WAC school. ``The college presidents involved in the NCAA need to wake up because when you're 10-2 and you're not going to a bowl game because you can't generate a large fan base, that's a travesty.''
Everyone else in college athletics plays a tournament, so why not big-time football?
Coaches don't want it. If they finish fourth in the conference and there's a playoff, they might not get a bowl bid they can pitch to prospects. Too bad. There are too many bowls anyway, and the NCAA is considering more. In a 16-team playoff, up to 15 bowls could be incorporated, and the most attractive ones could alternate for the football version of the Final Four.
The polls don't need to be be part of the process. There could be a selection committee, like the one Virginia athletic director Terry Holland currently chairs in basketball. Use a computer and other selection criteria, including strength of schedule. Seed the teams, just as in hoops.
The bowls will pay schools and conferences about $102 million this year. The NCAA study says a 16-team I-A playoff would bring in more than that. Worried about missed class time? Why? Division III has the most bookish student-athletes. It plays the Stagg Bowl during the semester exam crunch.
A I-A playoff not only would make dollars. It would make sense.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 linesby CNB