THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608270495
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: V17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: College Forecast
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 116 lines
The tie is dead; now we have the tiebreaker
Ties no longer have a place in college football, other than in the student section at some Southern venues like Virginia's Scott Stadium.
Actually, that's no place for a tie, either, but some traditions just won't die.
In one of the most significant rules changes in years, college games that are tied at the end of regulation will be decided by overtime. An overtime period consists of one possession for each team beginning at the opponent's 25-yard-line. The possession ends when a team scores, turns the ball over or fails to convert a fourth-down play. The game is over when one team is ahead after an equal number of possessions.
Although the rule change was born out of a February meeting of the football coaches' association, enough coaches have groused about it that we're beginning to wonder if they had a quorum there.
``I still like the NFL version of sudden death,'' Virginia's George Welsh said, adding that with the new untimed tiebreaker ``you could get in a field-goal kicking contest and the game would go on forever.''
The rule has been used since 1981 in Division I-AA, Division II and Division III championships - as well as in select conferences within those divisions during the regular season. As far as we know, no games that just won't end are in progress.
The tiebreaker was in place for bowls last year. Toledo beat Nevada 40-37 in the first Division I-A game decided by tiebreaker in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Fitting it was Las Vegas, because the tiebreaker is such a game of chance. You win the coin toss, you automatically go on defense so you have the considerable advantage of knowing what you have to beat. Boston College coach Dan Henning said a game that has encompassed some 160 plays and involved the intricacies of field position and the punting game turns into nothing more than a shootout in the tiebreaker.
``I'm not interested in being William Tell and shooting an apple off somebody's head,'' Henning said.
But there are advantages. It will help resolve problems of determining conference championships, and it could enable more teams to be eligible for bowls. A tie did not count toward the six-win requirement against Division I-A opponents to be eligible for bowl games.
And fans should like it. Even some coaches do.
``I'm sure if we win a game with the tiebreaker, I will be a big fan,'' Duke's Fred Goldsmith said.
HEISMAN HYPE: Everybody, it seems, has a Heisman candidate nowadays. This year, even Wyoming is touting a wide receiver for the prize.
They play football in Wyoming, eh?
Here's a guess at the Heisman top three: Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel, Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning and Northwestern running back Darnell Autry.
Wuerffel and Manning duel in Knoxville on Sept. 21. But this is not necessarily an arms race. Iowa State's Troy Davis, Toledo's Wasean Tait, San Diego State's George Jones and Northwestern's Autry were the top four rushers in the nation last year, and all are back.
DIRTY DOZEN: The brand-new Big 12 is already being labeled the greatest conference in the history of college football. It's also big business - the conference's university chancellors and presidents refer to themselves as the CEOs.
Another name for them might be the Big-E-Gos. The schools that formerly made up the Big Eight and half of the Southwest Conference have bickered about virtually everything but who gets a key to the executive washroom.
``This merger came about because separately the two entities couldn't create the television contracts they needed,'' Big 12 commissioner Steve Hatchell said.
When the teams merge on the field on Saturday afternoons, the effect on the bottom line is they could end up knocking each other out of the national title picture. Half the conference schools are in the AP preseason top 25 - No. 1 Nebraska, No. 5 Colorado, No. 8 Texas, No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 21 Kansas State and No. 24 Kansas.
HOME COOKING I: Attendance in all divisions of college football last year was down 822,112, or an average of 281 fans per game. Michigan (103,767 per-game average), Tennessee (94,694), Penn State (93,591), Ohio State (93,510) and Florida (85,139) made up the top five in average home attendance. Virginia Tech (41,192) was 43rd, Virginia (40,067) ranked 45th.
Temple, where no one gives a hoot about Owls football, was last among 108 Division I-A schools with an average gate of 4,406. At that rate, it would take the Owls 23 home games - or roughly four seasons - to draw the number of fans that pass through the turnstiles at Michigan Stadium in one fall afternoon.
HOME COOKING II: Tennessee and Florida State will travel outside their state borders only twice this year. So much for frequent flier miles.
Florida State was supposed to play at Maryland and Wake Forest, but these two schools instead took checks to move their home games against the Seminoles to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, respectively.
Hey, if you're going to get pasted, why not pick up a quick $1 million in the process, as the Terps and Deacs reportedly will do? A stiff who signs to fight Mike Tyson for a big payday doesn't care where they hold the fight, so long as there's a hospital nearby.
Florida State's nine dates in the Sunshine State include six home games, at Miami against the Hurricanes, and then the two ``neutral'' site games.
Similarly, Tennessee bought out Ole Miss to move the game to Memphis. In addition to six home games, the Vols play at cross-state rivals Vanderbilt and Memphis.
GET YOUR PASSPORT NOW: Perhaps there were no sunny spots remaining in the U.S. that don't already have a bowl game. Regardless, there will be a first this year: a bowl game played outside the U.S.
The Haka Bowl, matching a third team from the Pac-10 versus an at-large team, will be played in New Zealand on Dec. 27. However, it will be televised stateside - on the opposite side of the international date line - by ESPN on Dec. 26, just in case you give a heck about the Haka.
BIG RED MACHINE: Nebraska coach Tom Osborne used to be regarded as a guy who couldn't win the big one. Come Jan. 2 at the Sugar Bowl, he could win an unprecedented third-consecutive national title. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
KEYWORDS: SPECIAL SECTION PREVIEW by CNB