Blanket Coverage: Create November Saturday to Remember

A playoff? No, thank you.

That said, please do not think for a second that I ravenously slurp the Kool-Aid that the BCS is attempting to serve. I don't want to see a playoff because I love the idea that you have to show up every Saturday, that each week the stakes get higher and the opponent, no matter what their record, gets tougher for an undefeated team. And I hate the idea of neutral-site playoff games in NFL cities in December and January (there's a reason that the SEC and Big 12 title games never have any juice).

It would not be a panacea, but the most effective step toward improving the current system would be to compel teams who are seriously interested in playing for the national championship to play 12 meaningful games. Which brings us to Saturday's slate.

Florida, the No. 1 team in the nation, hosts Florida International (3-7), which boasts the nation's 118th-rated total defense. No. 2 Alabama hosts Chattanooga, an FCS school. I agree that the SEC is the nation's toughest conference. I realize that Florida plays Florida State out-of-conference in two weeks. And I am aware that the Gators and Tide are not the only schools to schedule guaranteed victories in order to garner another home date and the booty that it entails (see, Washington State versus Notre Dame).

Think, however, how much more interesting the season might be if the NCAA were to designate either the second or third Saturday in November as a play-in weekend. Imagine if the FBS agreed that on that date the top eight schools would be required to play one another. On that weekend no intra-conference games would be scheduled (you could move up the beginning of conference play one week earlier in the season). The eight teams that would be dropped (e.g., FIU by Florida) would fall into a pool and play one another.

Home field among the top eight would be determined by higher ranking. Paul Johnson, the coach at No. 7 Georgia Tech, might not relish the idea of traveling to Tuscaloosa but he'd probably prefer that to not having a shot at the national title at all.

Sure, there are wrinkles that would need to be solved. What if the two schools had already met that season (switch the matchups)? Would the picture be any clearer after such a weekend, for instance, would an unbeaten No. 5 Cincinnati, having toppled No. 4 TCU, be any closer to a shot at the national championship game?

Ludicrous? In college football, something can never be done (e.g., games after New Year's Day, African-Americans on SEC rosters, instant replay) until someone decides that it can.

A mid-November winnowing of the contenders? I'd be thankful for that.

Hanging 50 on Troy ... that Was His Deal

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, when USC's Pete Carroll and Stanford's Jim Harbaugh met for the post-game handshake following the Cardinal's 55-21 de-pantsing of the Trojans, the conversation went thusly:

Carroll: "What's your deal? What's your deal?
Harbaugh: "What's your deal?"

I'll take a wild guess and assume that this was not an impromptu dialogue between the two to compare contracts. What I cannot understand is why anyone who has seen Harbaugh operate the past few seasons is the least bit surprised that he went for the two-point conversion up 48-21.

The Cardinal had just scored and only 6:47 remained in the game. Harbaugh was likely figuring, When's the last time anyone hung 50 points on princely Pete (answer: never)? So he went for the deuce. Guarantee if the score were 47-21 at the time he would not have.

Stanford and USC compete for the same players in the same fertile Golden State breeding grounds. How much farther can Harbaugh puff out his pecs when he struts into a recruit's living room having not only beaten USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum but embarrassed them?

No punking of USC by Stanford could be complete, though, without a cruel and clever halftime performance by the Stanford band. They did not disappoint, performing a tribute to USC alum -- "Girls Gone Wild" creator-tax evader Joe Francis. I can only imagine what they are devising for Charlie Weis when the Irish visit Palo Alto in two weeks.


Records Are Made to Be Broken ... or Digitized and Sold on iTunes

A few weeks ago, when Florida's Tim Tebow was on the verge of breaking the SEC rushing touchdowns record of 49 set by Herschel Walker, fellow FanHouse scribe Clay Travis argued that the standards were unfair. Because the NCAA now includes bowl game statistics in overall stats, something that it did not do in Walker's era, Travis argued that the scales were unbalanced.

Either give Walker (the greatest college football player many of us ever saw) the five touchdowns that he scored in bowl games, making the record 54, or subtract from Tebow's total the two he has scored in January contests. Seems reasonable, which of course is why Clay's proposal was ignored by the SEC.

Now along comes a new stats controversy involving Tebow. Two years ago when he won the Heisman (which, by the way, he will not do this season), the Gator QB rushed for a single-season NCAA-record 23 touchdowns. On Saturday, Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs pulled to within one score of Tebow's mark when he ran it in five times against Delaware in the Mids' 35-18 win against Delaware.

Never mind that Dobbs' five touchdown runs went for a total of 10 yards. That's irrelevant. However, Delaware is an FCS school. If victories against FCS programs do not count toward a team's minimum number of wins required for bowl eligibility, should the statistics accrued in those contests count?

Dobbs is a terrific player, but five of his 22 rushing touchdowns -- nearly 25 percent -- came in what amounts to a glorified scrimmage. When he unseats Tebow, perhaps as early as Navy's next game at Hawaii on November 28, how will the Gainesville groupies react?

Distant Replay

Earlier this season a prominent college football writer on the web (that is no longer an oxymoron) told me that he'd be happy if every play were reviewed in the booth because he was all for getting the call right.

If only it were that simple.

After Pittsburgh beat Notre Dame Saturday night, assisted by an overturned call late in the fourth quarter, Irish coach Charlie Weis said, "It seems like the replay officials recently, every game you watch, they are the stars."

In their brief history, instant replay officials have become the most despised men in a glass booth since the "Deal or No Deal" banker. It need not be that way. A few suggested changes:

1. Unless these men can demonstrate that they understand the concept of "indisputable evidence" before overturning a call, then instant replay itself should cease to exist.

2. Instant replay officials need to get younger and fast. The majority of them are retired or near-retirement officials. We're not looking for Wal-Mart greeters here. We're looking for people who are at the peak of their powers in terms of scrutinizing a play.

3. I've noted this before, but there is absolutely no reason a replay official needs to be in a glass booth watching a second-rate television. When every Hooters' waitress has a better view of the play than you do, something's not right.

That play, by the way, did not doom the Irish. Their feckless first-half performance, a chronic shortcoming all season, did.

From First-Round to Fifth-String

Oregon head coach Chip Kelly reinstated tailback LeGarrette Blount for the Ducks' game with Arizona State. He just failed to play him.

"We didn't get to our fifth running back," Kelly said, referring to Blount with a complete lack of chalant. "Andre (Crenshaw, the third-string tailback) had one or two carries, Remene (Alston, the fourth-stringer) got in for one or two carries."



The Ducks' best player heading into the season, Blount was considered a first-round caliber draft pick before he decked Boise State's Byron Hout following Oregon's 19-8 loss in the season opener. While Kelly has shown compassion and mercy by rescinding the year-long suspension imposed on Blount in the immediate aftermath of the Hout punch, every so often he jerks the leash, as he did on Saturday, as if to test Blount's resolve and contrition.

This is terrific theater out of Eugene. Watching the drama between Kelly and Blount unfold is a little like watching the bathroom scene in Jerry Maguire. It's as if Kelly is Rod Tidwell, and he's telling Blount, "You are hanging on by a very thin thread and I dig that about you!"

All-Name Team

From the same people who introduced you to Central Michigan's Tommy Mama and Marshall's Darius Marshall, meet center T-Bob Hebert. With a name like that, it should take no more than one guess as to the state in which he plays and no more than two guesses (for the benefit of a few Ragin' Cajun reading this) as to the school.

And, yes, the former NFL quarterback is his daddy.

You can call me Al ... Golden ... Tate ... Forcier

Speaking of names, this is my favorite moniker chain of the season. From the up-and-coming thirtysomething head coach at the school located in the town where "Thirtysomething" was set, to the lone player at Notre Dame who each week reinforces the vestigial notion that the Irish really do have Fight, to the freshman quarterback at Michigan, which last beat an FBS opponent in September.

Overheard...

Matt Millen, while doing the broadcast of the Iowa-Ohio State contest, stressed that he "could not underemphasize enough" the importance of Ohio State's dominant defensive linemen. Everyone makes errors on live television (we even do in dead print), but for the future Millen should remember that it's "overemphasize."

The best way to not underemphasize enough a point is to remain silent.

Flighting Irish

In the biggest aviation story related to Notre Dame football since Knute Rockne's plane landed about 1,400 miles short of the runway, the school has found a way to block the university plane's registration number (N42ND) from appearing on the flight-tracking web site flightaware.com.

Shrewd tactic by the Irish. It will compel the legion of scribes covering the program to go Anton Chigurh on athletic director Jack Swarbrick and, like Chigurh, they will track him down. It's the nature of the business.

Alive ... and Kicking

If it feels as if once a year you come across the story of some grizzled Rudy type finding his way onto a Division III roster, that's because you do. This fall's middle-aged Walter Mitty is Austin College kicker Tom Thompson, age 61, who successfully converted the point after in the Kangaroos' 44-10 loss to Trinity (yes, that Trinity). It was Thompson's first kick of his college career.

Thompson is just 35 years older than Ohio State kicker Devin Barclay, 26, the retired pro soccer player whose overtime boot versus Iowa sent the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl.