The Times from Munster, Indiana • 84

F-4 THE TIMES Sunday, December 16, 1984 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Who's No. The controversy abounds Attention created by poll that era. Michigan in 1948 was a victim of the Big Ten's no-repeat Rose Bowl rule. But starting with the 1950 season, the No. 1 team has gone bowling in all but five years Michigan State was not yet eligible for the Big Ten title in 1952, Oklahoma was a victim of the Big Seven's no-repeat Orange Bowl rule in 1956, Auburn was on probation in 1957, Notre Dame still wasn't playing postseason football in 1966 and Oklahoma was on probation in 1974.

In 1975, Arizona State was only No. 7 at the close of the regular season and the Sun Devils weren't really thinking national championship until they wound up No. 2 with a perfect record. "Most of our fans thought we deserved to be No. 1, but what's done is done and we're grateful to be No.

2," Coach Frank Kush said shortly after the results were in. "Our kids did a great job and we were very fortunate to be ranked No. 2. This will mean a lot to our program, as well as to the Western Athletic Conference. "We're kind of sandwiched between the Pacific-8 (it became the Pac-10 in 1978) and the Big Eight in the Rocky Mountain area, but I think what we did this year is going to enlighten many people and make them aware of what we're capable of doing." Maybe BYU will do just that eight years later.

Says Houston Coach Bill Yeoman, "You win 23 practices in a row nowadays, much less 23 games in a row, and you've really acomplished something." they're a legitimate No. 1 that's all," says Ron Meyer, coach of the SMU team that blew a 45-25 lead in the final four minutes of the 1980 Holiday Bowl and lost 4645. "What else does a team have to do? They throw it, they can play defense, they can put the ball in the end zone against anybody. They're sound and they're a class, class operation. They've done it, and I don't care who it's been against.

Some other people play some games against people who won't knock you dead. The popular rap on BYU is that the Cougars don't play a Top Twenty team every week. "I think they've got a heck of a football program, but the thing that's hard to evaluate is when you don't have to tee it up every week against the Ohio States, Michigans and Iowas," says Wisconsin Coach Dave McClain, a 28-3 regular-season victim in 1980. "They do as well with the passing game as anyone in the country and they're playing the best defense they've ever played. They might be legitimate.

My biggest question is can they line up every week? Our last four games were against Ohio State, Iowa, Purdue and Michigan State, and they're all in bowl games. "On any given Saturday, BYU can line up and play with anybody in the country and beat them because of their passing game. I don't care if they play the San Francisco 49ers they've got a chance to beat you. With the type of skills they've got, they have a chance to score a lot of points against you." Texas Christian, which went to the Sugar Bowl following the 1938 season, was the first No. 1-ranked team to play in a bowl game.

For the entire decade of the 1940s, however, the No. 1 team stayed home. The Big Ten (Minnesota in 194041, Ohio State in 1942) didn't begin going to bowl games until the 1946 season, nor did Notre Dame (1943, 1946, 1947, 1949) or Army (1944-45) accept bowl bids in cently. "They thought theirs was the dominant team. There were some cases where agitated Minnesota followers wrote the general manager of AP telling him he should get rid of me because I couldn't tell one top team from another.

There was one little town in Minnesota where they hung me in effigy. "It was," he added, "the kind of controversy I had in mind for the appeal of the poll." In 1936, the AP began the poll business in earnest. "Opinions are like noses everybody's got one," former Texas Coach Darrell Royal once said. The opinions went against the 'WAC in 1975, the last time one of its teams completed a season unbeaten and untied. Arizona State, 12-0 following a 17-14 Fiesta Bowl victory over Nebraska, finished a distant second in the final rankings to 11-1 Oklahoma.

Had Arizona State been in the Pacific-10 Conference then it switched allegiances in 1978 it is likely the Sun Devils would have been voted No. 1 with a perfect record. "Sure," concedes Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer. For those who like to downgrade the caliber of BYU's opposition, it should be noted that included in the Cougars' 23-game winning streak longest in the nation by far are such 1984 victims as Baylor, which beat Texas; Air Force, which has defeated Notre Dame each of the past three seasons; Wyoming, which beat Air Force, and San Diego State, which came within three points of Oklahoma State. Last year, the list contained Rose Bowl champ UCLA.

And in their string of six consecutive Holiday Bowls this will be seven in a row the Cougars have knocked off teams from the Big Eight (Missouri, 1983), Pac-10 (Washington State, 1982) and Southwest conferences (Southern Methodist, 1980). "They do a tremendous job and then the national champion was decided on the basis of the regular season, a system that was changed for good two years later. And this year the debate is not just who should be No. 1, but what makes a No. 1.

Some members of the college football community seem upset over Brigham Young's lofty status even though the 12-0 Cougars are the nation's only undefeated team. An ABC-TV telephone poll on Dec. 1 attracted 191,336 callers who thought BYU should not be No. 1 as opposed to 166,590 who thought the Cougars should. And the New York Times' computer rankings lists BYU no better than No.

20. And then there is the Orange Bowl. "Brigham Young's opponents as a group have a losing record; how can a team like that be the national champion?" said Nick Crane, chairman of the team selection committee. "As far as the Orange Bowl is concerned, we think ours is a national championship game (between No. 2 Oklahoma and No.

4 Washington)." "I think it's fun," replied John Reid, executive director of the Holiday Bowl, where BYU, as champion of the Western Athletic Conference for the ninth year in a row, will meet Michigan on Friday night. "It's creating a lot of attention for our game, and that's great. Being an advocate of the bowl system, the more argument and controversy you have over who's No. 1, the more interest you create." Controversy is nothing new where No. 1 is concerned.

In the early 1930s, AP sports editor Alan J. Gould was a one-man college football poll. To cap the 1935 season, he ranked 8-0 Minnesota, 9-0 Princeton and 12-0 Southern Methodist as co-No. 1 teams. "It created a storm in the Big Ten, in general, and Minneapolis-St.

Paul, in particular," Gould recalled re By HERSCHEL NISSENSON The Associated Press "I do not think that you are a very nice person," the letter, which The Associated Press received in December 1979, began. "You should not even be allowed to sit on the AP Pole (sic)," it continued. "Even Santa Claus should be mad at you. I hope on Christmas Eve that you have nightmares and all you can see is Roll Tide." It is five years this month since anyone lost his temper over where his favorite college football team was ranked and that happened AFTER Alabama slipped behind Ohio State in The AP's final regular-season poll, ending a seven-week stay at the top. Alabama did, however, regain its No.

1 ranking after the bowl games and, along with it, the national championship. It was AFTER the bowl games that Notre Dame won the 1977 national championship, trouncing No. 1 Texas 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl and vaulting from fifth place to No. 1, while Alabama routed Ohio State 35-6 in the Sugar Bowl but could do no better than climb from third to second. Now there is a new twist to this familiar debate.

The controversy is brewing BEFORE the bowl games before Brigham Young becomes the first No. 1 team in the 49 years of the AP poll to play in a bowl other than the Rose, Cotton, Orange or Sugar. The last time this much controversy arose before a bowl was 1966 when 11-0 Alabama finished third behind Notre Dame AND Michigan State, both 9-0-1. At least WINTER SSRYKE IF YOUR FURNACE QUITS NIOHT or DAY atSi. KLAWINSKi 3Y cu KIAWINMI HAMMOND MIMIUVIU! CHICAOO NTS.

931-2309 769-2935 7S5-4120 Montana St. champ; NAIA-I title shared times. Montana State scored all of its points in the first half on 17-and 33-yard passes from Bradley to Bignell and two field goals by Mike Carter. In Conway, Central Arkansas opened a 13-0 lead over Carson-Newman on a swing pass from Fusilier to Richie White that went for a 52-yard touchdown and two field goals by Curtis Burrow. But tailback Kenneth Tyson set up one touchdown with a 60-yard run and scored another from 30 yards away to give Carson- Newman a 14-13 edge.

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