December 2, 2002
If B.C.S. Calls, Irish Should Just Let It Ring
By JOE DRAPE
Jordan Black is 6 feet 6 inches tall and 305 pounds, 22 years old and an offensive tackle who perhaps will be mentioned on a couple of all-American lists. Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White, Coach Tyrone Willingham and anyone sporting pastel blazers with bowl-game insignias need to listen to him.
Shortly after the Fighting Irish were crushed by Southern Cal on Saturday, Black made the most honest proclamation of this college football season. It demonstrated that he knew the difference between earning something and being given it, about how fair play should mean more than television ratings and gate receipts.
"After the way we played, we don't deserve to play in the Orange Bowl," Black said after Notre Dame's 44-13 defeat. "This wasn't this year's team; it was last year's team that showed up tonight."
That's the way college football fans will feel if the Fighting Irish (10-2) are selected to play in either the Orange or Rose Bowl at the expense of the Trojans (10-2) or, worse, Iowa (11-1). Not only can that happen, but it probably will, if the final week of the season plays out to form.
Only two things can derail it.
One is if the B.C.S. bowl organizers and ABC Sports decide to pass over the Fighting Irish and a certain financial bonanza to give Southern Cal and Iowa their just rewards. The other is if the Notre Dame administration opts to live up to its self-image of what is good and right about college football and refuses a bid to one of the B.C.S. bowls.
If Miami beats Virginia Tech on Saturday, the Hurricanes will meet Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl in a battle of unbeaten teams for the national title on Jan. 3. The Sugar Bowl is likely to pit Florida State, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, against Georgia or Arkansas, which play in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Saturday.
The Orange Bowl is likely to take the winner of the Big 12 championship game, either Oklahoma or Colorado. If Washington State takes care of U.C.L.A., it locks up a spot in the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 champion.
That leaves Southern Cal, Iowa and Notre Dame vying for the Orange and the Rose bids.
If you think the computer-assisted equation of determining the top two teams is complicated, try making sense of the guidelines for filling out the roster for the remaining three nontitle B.C.S. games, each worth $13 million a team.
Here are the nuts and bolts of the selection criteria:
¶The champions of the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Pac-10, Big 12 and Big Ten conferences are guaranteed six of the eight bowl spots.
¶The last two spots come from the at-large pool, which requires that a team have nine regular-season victories and be ranked in the top 12 of the final B.C.S. standing next Sunday.
But here is where filling those last two spots becomes tricky:
¶If Notre Dame finishes in the top six of the final B.C.S. standing, it is guaranteed an at-large slot, according to the selection guidelines.
¶If the team that is No. 3 in the final B.C.S. poll is an at-large team, it is guaranteed a berth.
The Fighting Irish almost certainly cannot finish in the top six and receive an automatic bid, not after losing its second game and dropping in both the voting polls and the computer ranking — they are No. 15 in the New York Times computer ranking, down from No. 8. But because of its national audience, Notre Dame remains a viable at-large team in the eyes of bowl organizers, who want people in the seats and spending money in their community, and of ABC, which wants to deliver viewers to advertisers.
•
Ohio State is the Big Ten champion and already in the title game; if Miami and Georgia win Saturday, they will be conference champions.
Southern Cal is close to receiving an automatic berth because it is projected to be No. 4 in the B.C.S. ranking released today. (Ahead of the Trojans will be Miami, Ohio State and Georgia.) The Trojans' schedule is judged the toughest in the country, which wows computers, including The Times's, which ranked them No. 1 today.
The B.C.S. guidelines say that if the No. 4 team is from the at-large pool with conference champions ahead of them, it receives a guaranteed berth. But the No. 5 team is promised nothing, and that is where Iowa is likely to end up.
If Miami remains No. 1, Orange Bowl organizers will have first pick because they have a conference tie-in with the Big East and lost the highest-ranked B.C.S. team to the Fiesta Bowl and the national title game. This is where ABC, which broadcasts the four bowls, and Orange and Rose Bowl organizers are going to have to search their souls.
The B.C.S. ensures that only the top two teams will meet in a title game; the remaining three bowls can tailor their matchups to regional and revenue needs, or do pretty much what they want under the guidelines.
Do Orange Bowl organizers dare pass up Notre Dame and its loyal following for Southern Cal? If they do, can Rose Bowl officials — who have chosen to honor their commitment to the Pac-10 champion, even though it has lost the Big Ten champ — resist plucking the Irish in lieu of Iowa, a team that outside of its small, Midwestern state does not register with hard-core college fans, let alone casual bowl viewers?
They have seven days to work it through, as does Notre Dame. Among the reasons many people dislike the Fighting Irish is the anointed status it has been bestowed by groups like the B.C.S. and broadcasters trying to cash in on their appeal.
They have had a fine year, especially under Willingham, its first-year coach who has brought dignity and magic back to the Golden Dome. It was disconcerting, however, to hear him lobby for B.C.S. inclusion after being embarrassed by the Trojans.
"We played 12 games," he said. "We won 10 of them. We're a solid football team, and this game is not an indication of what this team can do."
Instead, Willingham and White should follow the lead of Jordan Black and be prepared to turn down a B.C.S. bowl if it means Iowa or Southern Cal is left out. Notre Dame has 11 national titles, has played scores of bowl games and is likely to earn more of both. It can afford going to a lesser bowl. It has money and influence and can earn a respect that is priceless by doing the right thing.
•
If the bowls are bent on inviting the Irish, Notre Dame can say, "Thank you, but no thank you, the kid is right: there are more deserving teams."
In the meantime, however, the Fighting Irish can link arms with Iowa and Southern Cal, as well as bowl organizers and broadcasters, and pray for a more painless solution: that U.C.L.A. upsets Washington State on Saturday to put the Trojans and the Hawkeyes in the Rose Bowl, and the Irish in the Orange. |
