THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030530
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Comment
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Why must the ``experts'' try to decide which team is going to win the college football championship two months from the finish line?
Check your calendars: It is Nov. 3, not Jan. 2, the day the major bowls will be played, followed by a vote to determine the No. 1 team.
Nebraska or Penn State?
Penn State or Nebraska?
The real question, at this point, is why should anyone care enough to spend hours upon hours debating such a meaningless issue?
Most things take care of themselves when given sufficient time.
Penn State still has five games to play and Nebraska has four, assuming both teams make it to a postseason bowl.
While most of the current debate is harmless enough, what really irritates me is when the partisan posturing comes at the expense of others.
It is not enough that some fans want to convince you that Nebraska is the No. 1 team, they also want you to believe the Big Eight is the baddest conference of them all.
We get the same from Penn State fans, who have made themselves at home in the Big Ten.
Of course, both sides are wrong.
The best college football conference is the Southeastern, which currently features three teams - not one or two - contending for the national championship.
Alabama or Auburn? Or Florida?
It is politically correct to overlook - even ignore - Auburn since the school is currently on NCAA probation.
We also are reminded that Florida is a one-time loser (although one poll should not consider that since it does not recognize Auburn, the team that beat the Gators) and Alabama is unbeaten only because it plays a soft schedule.
The folks at Nebraska, who lined up Pacific, know a few things about soft schedules, too. This is the same Nebraska that through the years has had to win only one or two tough games each season to get to a major bowl for a shot at a national championship - something it has not won in recent history.
We might mention, too, that Nebraska played ACC teams in so-called championship bowls three times and lost each time.
We mention that because in all the verbal scuffling going on these days, the ACC is taking it on the chin.
The ESPN Radio guys reported Florida State's roll over Duke last Saturday with a side comment that ``the ACC is a joke.''
Admittedly, the ACC is down and not nearly as strong as it was when Danny Ford was at Clemson, Bobby Ross was at Maryland or Georgia Tech, Dick Sheridan was at N.C. State, Steve Spurrier was at Duke and Bill Dooley was at Wake Forest.
But take a look around. College football is down in a lot of places. Fewer scholarships and higher academic standards will do that.
Florida State has made the ACC look worse than it probably is with easy victories over league members. But did anyone notice Florida State's 59-20 victory over Duke was much closer than Penn State's 63-14 thumping of Ohio State? Or that Florida State's 17-0 win over Clemson was by the same margin as Nebraska's much-heralded 24-7 victory over Colorado?
Is the Big Ten a joke?
Is the Big Eight a joke?
In the current AP poll, the ACC has four ranked teams, the Big Eight three and the Big Ten two.
Put Florida State against either Penn State or Nebraska in a championship bowl at the end of the season and I would give an edge to the Seminoles.
But no one wants to give Florida State a chance to repeat as national champion because it lost on the road to Miami.
And Miami?
It lost at home to Washington, which lost to Oregon, which might be the team Penn State loses to in the Rose Bowl.
If that happens, and Miami beats Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, everyone really will have something to talk about. by CNB