1977

College Football Lacking Playoff System

The Bowls Are Over; Who's Number One?

By WILL GRIMSLEY

AP Special Correspondent

January 3, 1977

PASADENA, Calif. (AP)- "We're No. 1, we're No. 1," exulted arm-waving Southern California football players after the clock had run down on their 14-6 victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

In salty New Orleans, Tony Dorsett and his Pittsburgh mates, undoubtedly watching on TV, must have been bemused. Ranked No. 1, they had embellished their perfect season with an impressive 27-3 triumph over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Yet Southern Cal's coach John Robinson, when asked if he still thought the Rose Bowl decided the best football team in the country, replied tartly, "Damn right! We took a poll in our dressing room right after the game and voted USC No. 1. It was unanimous."

Then Bo Schembechler, the beaten Michigan coach supported Robinson with, the comment, "USC is the quickest and most physical college team I've ever seen. They have my vote for No. 1."

In Miami, Ohio State's Woody Hayes also entertained some grandiose notions after knocking off Colorado in the Orange Bowl. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama and Notre Dame, not to mention Houston, winner of the Cotton Bowl, started campaigning for a recount after scoring notable post-season victories.

Thus, the curtain falls on another period of "Bowlmania," a little piece of America, an affliction that touches us all. Untold millions go bleary-eyed from unbroken hours in front of the television screen. Husbands put themselves in an invisible isolation booth, losing contact with humanity. Family harmony is fractured.

The tragedy is that when the great year-end drama has run its course there is rarely a finality. It's the only big-time sport where there is no script for determining a champion.

Efforts have been made to set up a football playoff system enveloping the established bowls. Prime movers have been Ara Paseghian, former Notre Dame coach, and Joe Paterno of Penn State. The proposals never got off the ground.

The current bowl structure is too heavily commercialized and deeply imbedded- the Rose dates back to 1902, the Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Gator have been around 30 years or longer, seeing millions of dollars roll in yearly, is fearful of offending the golden goose.

The most sensible idea is that of establishing a bracket of 16 top teams- champions of eight major conferences, four "wild cards" from these conferences and four leading independents. Let them start playoffs the first week in December, utilizing the various bowls- Fiesta, Astro-BIuebonnet, Peach, Tangerine, Gator, you name it- and tap the older bowls for the semifinals and finals.

It will never happen. The bowls have become the exclusive province of a handful of major teams- Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, etc. The same teams year after year.

"It's a self-perpetuating society. The fat bowl checks buy more scholarships. More scholarships mean more good players. The rich get richer and who cares if nobody ever knows who is really No. 1.

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