The college football arguments, which used to center on Who`s No. 1, have become How Do You Determine No. 1.
What`s the solution?
”It`s very difficult,” says Mike Francesa, CBS` affable studio analyst who favors a national playoff. ”How do you do it without destroying the bowls?”
”I don`t know if (a playoff is) all that necessary,” says Keith Jackson, ABC`s veteran play-by-play announcer who prefers the status quo because he doubts any changes would be adopted.
”I`ve favored a playoff for a long time,” says Francesa. ”(Polls are)
not an equitable situation. The idea of coaches voting was riddled last week when (Nebraska athletic director) Bob Devaney called Big Eight coaches `dumb blanks` for not voting on partisan and pocketbook lines. That killed the integrity of that poll.
”You look at the writers` poll, and it`s very difficult to assess, based on the varied schedules and all the other factors, who`s No. 1. We all voted Virginia No. 1-and I`m a voter-but if you polled everyone who voted who`s the No. 1 team in the country, (Virginia) wouldn`t have come in the top three. We all knew they weren`t for real.”
Jackson says ”as a member of the media, I`d like to see (a playoff). If I were a coach or a university president, I`d probably not be interested. Because if you have a playoff, you`re going to throw away the greatest marketing tool in the world: The eternal argument between the faithful as to which team is better.”
Jackson believes the water-fountain argument is the best promotion college football has going for it.
”(A playoff) would matter more to an independent like Notre Dame than to anybody else,” he says. As for reports the Big 10 and Pac-10 have agreed not to participate in a playoff, Jackson adds, ”As long as the Rose Bowl keeps paying $13 million (a year to the two conferences), they can`t even spell playoffs. They don`t even hear that word.”
Francesa agrees the bowls have meant a lot to college football-but they also are the biggest stumbling block to a playoff.
”At what level do you get them involved?” says Francesa. ”If you put bowls on different weeks and at different stages, you`ve got a problem.” For instance, Francesa doubts a team`s fans would keep traveling from bowl to bowl as their team progresses in the playoffs. ”That becomes a major factor,” he says.
Francesa`s solution-which the bowl people will hate-is to have a ”blue-ribbon committee of coaches and media people” vote on the top two teams after all the bowl games have been played and have them meet. Eventually, it could be expanded to a Final Four.
But Francesa also argues that the top-ranked teams then will pick patsy opponents for their bowl games, not wanting to risk a loss. ”You`re going to go pick up a check and then get into your (playoff) game,” he says.
Jackson mocks ”blue-ribbon committees” and suggests a national playoff system whereby teams would play only within eight regions, with the regional winners going to the next round. But there are ”a million little nagging problems that surface” when you discuss a playoff system, he says.
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”I`d rather sit down and hear people banter and buffer and argue and buy season tickets,” says Jackson. ”It really doesn`t mean that much to me. The colleges are better off without it, they make more money without it, they`re happier without it.”
The argument continues.
– Cable viewers are getting used to SportsChannel-Plus, the spillover channel provided to SportsChannel Chicago by area cable companies. ”The reaction and response from cable operators and subscribers has been very positive,” said Jim Corno, SportsChannel`s regional general manager. ”It`ll be nice once it settles down and becomes a regular thing.”
SportsChannel-Plus is used whenever SportsChannel has two events at the same time, such as Saturday night when the Blackhawks play at Toronto and the Bulls are home against Charlotte. The Hawks will be carried on the regular SC channel, while the Bulls can be seen on SportsChannel-Plus.
”To accommodate us, most operators are using channels designated for pay-per-view,” said Corno. ”We`re not looking for a 12-months-a-year channel. Our goal, and the cable companies` goal, is to bring channel options to viewers. We always had calls when we had something on a (tape) delay basis. Hopefully, now we can satisfy everyone.”
– ESPN returns to the pro football wars Sunday with the first of its eight NFL telecasts. Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann will cover the 49ers-Cowboys contest at 7 p.m.
– CBS has tabbed Texas-TCU and Mississippi-Tennessee for its Nov. 17 double-header, starting at 11 a.m. on WBBM-Ch. 2. . . . ESPN`s Nov. 17 schedule:
Minnesota-Michigan, 11:30 a.m.; Penn State-Notre Dame, 3 p.m.; and Georgia-Auburn, 6:30 p.m.
– ESPN, despite losing all its NCAA basketball tournament connections with the exception of the three ”play-in” games March 6, hasn`t backed off on its commitment to hoops. The cable network has scheduled 202 live telecasts for the upcoming season. In addition to its usual Big Monday package of Big East and Big 10 games, ESPN will carry a Big Eight and SEC double-header every Tuesday once conference play starts in January. ESPN`s 12th season will start with a Big Apple NIT double-header at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.