The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 32

32 THE BOSTON GLOBK SATURDAY. AUGUST 28.982 NATIONAL NOTEBOOK 1 si A strange recr lutinei a sv zwfA f-LHn hAw r1. OSS JtT- Ait Hlm Xhwi Ji story Tulane plays Mississippi State, jj a 10-0 Hall of Fame Bowl next Saturday. Big deal, right? A Well, it could be the beginning of a big deal, because Tulane will unveil a sensation named Elton Veals, a runner who broke all of 0. J.

Simpson's junior college -records. But that's only part of Veals' saga. How the 6-foot-l, 231-pound fullback wound up in Tulane after a recruiting tour de force that took up some 1 1,000 miles is the rest of it. GLOBE PHOTO BY DAVID I. RYAN Joe Restic's Harvard team will be playing its football in a renovated stadium and a new division 1-AA this season.

Veals was originally recruited they're all shook up ivisions for the '82 season by Tulane and Southern University upon his graduation from Is-trouma High School in Baton. Rouge, but he couldn't meet those colleges academic require ments and went to Merritt Junior College In Oakland. After he broke, every record imaginable there, USC, California and Illinois -among others became interested. It appeared that Veals was "ready to join new California head coach Joe Kapp at Berkeley, out of the blue. Veals enrolled this UailUai 111 VUUl U.L lIlllAVSltJ, and so' it appeared that coach Mike White known for his recruiting acumen, had pulled off another coup and would have Veals to complement Illinois' passing game, headed by Tony Eason.

Tnn4ni In esma nnnrcoo of Til "nrwic The United Press International Reluctantly, several New England teams will be taking a step down this season. Holy Cross and Ivy League members Harvard, Yale Dartmouth and Brown no longer will be synonymous with top-level college football. A revision in the NCAA rules, approved by NCAA delegates last Dec. 3-4, slashed Division 1 -A the highest ranking accorded member institutions from 137 schools to Q6. Thirty-eight schools previously in Division 1-A were dropped to Division Three more Miami (6hio) and Western Michigan of the MidAmerican Conference and Cincin- were reclassified in 1-AA on 5 Aug.

20, boosting membership to ,93. Some schools, however, took a upward. Alabama State and -o I. from Division 2 to 1-A. To accommodate the influx of has expanded the playoff format.

Now, for example, the champion of the Southern Conference, formerly a 1-A league, will get an automatic Citadel coach Art Baker is realistic about the realignment. "No matter how much we talked about it, up until this year Ithere wasn't much of a chance of -us playing any football after our regular season no matter what our was, saiu oaKer. look, at Furrrian two years ago. They went son State, James Madison, x-Lamar, x-Lou-isiana Tech, x-Marshall, x-McNeese State, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi Valley State, Morehead State, Murray State, Nicholls State, North Carolina x-Northeast Louisiana, Northwestern Louisiana, x-Richmond, South Carolina State, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern, x-Tennessee-Chattanooga, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, x-VMI, x-Western Carolina, Western Kentucky, x-Wil-liam Mary. MIDWEST (19) Akron, x-Ball State, x-Bowling Green, x-Cincinnati, x-Drake, Eastern Illinois, x-Eastern Michigan, x-lilinois State, x-lndiana State, x-Kent State, x-Miami x-Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, x-Ohio x-Southern Illinois, Southwest Missouri State, Western Illinois, x-Western Michigan, Youngstown State.

SOUTHWEST (6) x-Arkansas State, x-North Texas State, Prairie View, x-Texas-Ar-lington, Texas Southern, x-West Texas State. WEST (8) Boise State, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Nevada-Reno, Northern Arizona, Weber State. The last major realignment in college football came In August 1973, when the NCAA delegates approved a move to split the University and College Divisions into Divisions 1, 2 and 3. In 1978, the NCAA divided Division 1 into 1-A and 1-AA. James Frank, the president of Lincoln (Mo.) University and chairman of the NCAA's Governance, Organization and Services Committee, said the 1978 plan was just not working.

"It's obvious that the 1978 reorganization of Division 1 football has not worked as intended and that Division 1 membership as a N.E. CONFERENCE whole has experienced what appears to be uncontrolled growth," said Frank. "This change is designed to refocus on the Intent of the 1973 decision to create the three-division structure and the 1978 plan to reorganize Division 1 football to assure that institutions with similar commitments and essentially "like programs are grouped together." In addition to the Ivy League and Southern Conference, the Southland Conference was reclassified as 1-AA. Southwestern Louisiana, now an Independent with 1-A status, withdrew from the South-, land after the 1981 season. The schools in Division 1-A include 71 members of eight conferences the Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 8.

Pacific-10, Southwest, Atlantic Coast, Western Athletic and Pacific Coast along with 20 independents. The remaining five schools are Central Michigan and Toledo of the Mid-American Conference and Tulsa, Wichita State and New Mexico State of the Missouri Valley. An interesting case has developed in the Mid-American Conference, which has a commitment to send its champion to the California Bowl. Two schools remain in 1-A while the rest of the conference dropped to 1-AA. While the MAC champion seems assured of a berth in the 1 -AA playoffs, the conference said its winner, regardless of classification, will play in the California Bowl.

GIOBE FILE PHOTO STREET AND SMITH How they line up Breakdown, by regions, of the 96 schools currently listed in Division 1-A and the 90 schools listed in Division 1-AA by the NCAA: DIVISION 1-A EAST (9) Army, Boston College, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, West Virginia. SOUTH (28) Alabama, Auburn, Clem-son. Duke, East Carolina, Florida, Florida State. Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisiana Slate, Louisville, Maryland, Memphis State, Miami Mississippi, Mississippi State. North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Southern Mississippi, Southwestern Louisiana, Tennessee, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest.

MIDWEST (19) Central Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Toledo, Wichita State, Wisconsin. SOUTHWEST 13) Arkansas, Houston, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas, Texas 9-1-1 and nobody even looked at them. The move to 1-AA is a definite plus to the league because now the kids know that winning the conference title means they'll be playing for the national title." Furman coach Dick Sheridan agrees. "It gives us a national championship to play for," he said of his team, which won the Southern Conference title, finished with an 8-3 record and was uninvited to a bowl game. However, Yale athletic director Frank Ryan said the NCAA buckled under pressure from the College is class entire offensive backfield returns -quarterback Todd Cosgrove, running backs Mike Higgins and Rick Walters and flanker Mike Blau.

The Colonels also have eight starters back on defense. Framingham State, Bridgewa-ter State and Nichols College will be rebuilding. Framingham will field a solid defense, but its offensive backfield will be new. Bridgewater has an excellent pass-catch combination with quarterback Kevin Cobban and wide receiver Ron McCarthy. The Bears, however, are hurting on defense.

Nichols' biggest problem is depth. The Bisons lost their top three running backs and may lean on the passing of Mike Donehy. Western New England College was a surprising 5-4 in its first season last year, and most of that club is returning. WNEC has a talented fullback in Jim Bedard. Westfield State replaced Boston State as conference member.

The Owls are coached by former Chicago Bear Roger LeClerc and will be a dark horse. So will Western Connecticut, which has a promising running back in Greg DiOrio and enough lettermen to be competitive. INSIDE SPORTS But without ever attending any of those classes. Veals headed back to California, where he signed a let-1, i ter of intent to play for Kapp. (Face it: given the choice of Champaign, 111., and Berkeley, where would you go?) OK, so Illinois was out of the Veals picture.

But California released Veals when he didn't meet course requirements. That's when phone in Tulane assistant coach Frank Monica's office rang. Slli It was Veals' mother, asking Monica whether it would be all i right for her son to come to Tulane. Can you imagine Monica's "Well, I'll have to caucus with Vince Gibson, the head coach, Mrs. Veals.

"What number would your son like?" -rr It could be the biggest recruiting coup in Gibson's 16-year career. On the subject of players to watch: As the season unwinds.X keep an eye on the Oklahoma sto- if ries. Most of them should be punc--' tuated with several "freshman phenom" phrases. The player is Marcus DuPree, and they say heis actually a bigger version of Her-schel Walker. DuPree.

a 233-pound running back out of Philadelphia. rf should soon start maybe even in the Sooners' opener 11 against West Virginia in the same backfield with all-Big Eight' fullback Stanley Wilson. Watch1;" out, Nebraska. 1 1' 'A ml id) Syracuse coach Dick MacPher-'" son isn't exactly doing cartwheels as he prepares his team for Friday night's nice little gathering of )p 25,000 or so at East' N.J., against' home team Besides the crowd, the former versity of Massachusetts coach has to worry about finding a ment for tieht end Martv Texas Christian, Texas-El Paso, Texas Tech, Tulsa. WEST (27) Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, California, Colorado, Colorado State, Fresno State, Fullerton State, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, New Mexico Stale, Oregon, Oregon State, Pacific, San Diego State, San Jose State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Utah, Utah State, Washington, Washington State, Wyoming.

Division 1-AA (x denotes 1-A status in 1981, boldface denotes local team realigned) EAST (22) Boston x-Brown, Buck-nell, x-Colgate, x-Columbia, Connecticut, x-Cornell, x-Dartmouth, Delaware, Delaware State, x-Harvard, x-Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Northeastern, x-Pennsylvania, x-Princeton, Rhode Island, x-Ysle. SOUTH (38) Alabama State, Alcorn State, x-Appalachian State, Austin Peay, Bethune-Cookman, x-Citadel, Davidson, x-East Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Florida x-Furman, Grambling, Howard, Jack Football Assn. (CFA), a group of more than 60 schools which threatened to secede from the NCAA over a television contract dispute and allocation of television revenues. "It was a move to pacify the CFA, which wanted to split from the NCAA," said Ryan, whose school met the new NCAA guidelines but chose instead to join the rest of the conference in 1-AA. "We're on record as deploring the reasons for realignment, although I don't think it will have any effect on our program." The Ivy League prohibits its teams from competing In postseason play.

Running back Dwayne Anderson SPORTING NEWS w' -V lymouth of the league again By Bob Monahan Globe Staff Plymouth State, which posted a 9-1 record last year while winning its first New England Football Conference title, is an odds-on favorite to retain its crown. Plymouth's defense was tops among the nation's Division 3 colleges in points allowed (51) last year, and eight of those defensive starters return, including All-New England tackles Paul Hirschfeld and John McNulty. On offense, the Panthers have almost as much experience, led by quarterback Kevin Bradley and running back Dwayne Anderson. Massachusetts Maritime and Maine Maritime are expected to be the biggest threats to Plymouth. Mass.

Maritime has an experienced offense paced by quarterback Jim O'Neil and running back Tim Quinn. Maine Maritime graduated the top three rushers in the conference (Larry White, Al Harrison and Doug Lamson), but it has depth. Both Maritime schools have adequate talent, but from position to position, they don't figure to match up with Plymouth. Curry College will be a factor. Its How others 1.

Washington 2. North 3. Pittsburgh 4. Alabama 5 Nebraska S. f-1- 'J ''1 one of only three returning start ers, who will be out for the year oft or" imAetrrtrAntl lrn currtArv lacfv week.

Rft i This week's national college schedule THURSDAY Brigham Young at Nevada-Las Vegas (n) Prairie View State at Stephen Austin (n) FRIDAY Syracuse Rutgers at East Rutherford, N.J. (n) Vt Vt ill! ill SPORT Or "A is a bulwark of the Plymouth offense. PLAYBOY Pittsburgh ti Alabama Oklahoma Washington North Carolina Georgia Penn State Carolina 6. Miami (Fla.) 7. SMU 8.

Clemson 9. Oklahoma 11. Nebraska 12. USC 13. UCLA 14.

SMU 15. Ohio State 16. Florida 17. Notre Dame 18. Texas ASM 19.

Illinois 20. Clemson 1 1 Georgia Michigan 13 Penn State 14. Arkansas 15. Florida 16. USC 17.

Illinois 18. Brigham Young 19 Missouri Notre Dame 1. Pittsburgh 2. Washington 3. Arkansas 4.

North Carolina 5. Ohio State 6. Nebraska 7. USC 8. Florida 9.

Clemson 10. Georgia 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10. Washington Pittsburgh Nebraska Penn State Alabama North Carolina Georgia SMU USC Clemson 11. Ohio State 12. Arkansas 13. Brigham Young 14.

Michigan 15. Miami (Fla.) 16. UCLA 17. Houston 18. Arizona State 19.

Texas 20. Oklahoma 11. Notre Dame 12. Illinois 13. UCLA 14.

North Carolina 15. Michigan 16. Texas 17. SMU 18. Miami (Fla.) 19.

Brigham Young 20. Ohio State 11. UCLA 12. Oklahoma 13. SMU 14.

Auburn 15. Oklahoma State 16. Notre Dame 1 7. Penn State 18. Alabama 1 9.

Arizona State 20. Brigham Young 1. Florida i 2. Penn State 3. Washington 4.

Oklahoma 5. Georgia 6. Alabama 7. Arkansas SrClemson 9. Nebraska 10.

Pittsburgh 1H em picl 8. Miami (Fla.) 9. Arkansas 10. Michigan 10. Texas.