Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 61

4 if College football BYU embraces Texan Detmer PageD-5 Packers 20, Cowboys 10 Lions 31, Falcons 24 Redskins 29, Seahawks 0 Bills 37, JetsO College basketball Pitt shocked; Dukes thumped PageD-5 NFL scores Browns 24, Oilers 20 Giants 34, Raiders 17 Chiefs 27, Dolphins 24 Saints 41, Colts 6 Rams 24, Patriots 20 Eagles 31, Cardinals 14 Pittsburgh Post-tDazrttc Sports D-l MONDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1989 Steelers still alive for playoffs Win in Tampa boosts chances UHIIIimilH I 1 MW.IPIHI.. .1.. I IMIIIimil Jill .1.11 If ImK toHih WKKKHn By Ed Bouchette Post-Gazette Sports Writer TAMPA, Fla. It snowed in! Tampa early yesterday. Tonight, the Steelers hope to pull off their own little Christmas miracle.

Unlike the snow flurries that as- tonished Floridians, the Steelers'! playoff hopes are still sticking. They defeated the Tampa Bay' Buccaneers, 31-22, and they got help from some other teams yesterday to bring what had been faint playoff berth hopes down to one game Cincinnati at Minnesota tonight If Minnesota wins or ties, the! Steelers (9-7) make the playoffs for' the first time in five years. If Cincinnati wins, the Steelers are They either play in a wild-card game' next Sunday in Houston or wait until; next year. The Steelers' chances are still alive because both the Indianapolis Colts and the Los Angeles Raiders lost yesterday. Either team had advantages over the Steelers in the NFL's complicated tiebreaker system, which became moot when each finished with an 8-8 record.

Cleveland's last-minute victory over Houston Saturday night had apparently struck a blow to the CONTINUED ON PAGE D-3 Chris O'Meara Associated Press Steelers fullback Merril Hoge flops onto his belly after a hit by Buccaneers defensive back Harry Hamilton during the Steelers' 31-22 victory yesterday in Tampa, Fla. Who's in, who's out in NFL playoffs Chiefs edge Dolphins, but for naught The final two playoff berths will be decided when the Cincinnati Bengals meet the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis in the NFL's final regular-season' game tonight. If the Bengals lose or tie tonight, the American Conference wild-card game will match the Steelers and Oilers in Houston on Sunday. If the Bengals win, the Oilers visit Cincinnati. The National Conference wildcard teams are set, with the Los Angeles Rams going against the Eagles at Philadelphia Sunday.

If the Vikings lose, they are eliminated, and the NFC Central champion will be Green Bay. A Vikings' victory ousts the Packers and puts Minnesota in the playoffs as division champion. In the AFC divisional playoffs Jan. 6 and 7, Buffalo will be at Cleveland and the wild-card winner plays at Denver. In the NFC, either Green Bay or Minnesota will play at San Francisco or at New York, against the Giants.

Philadelphia would play at San Francisco if the Eagles win the wild-card game; the Rams would be at the Giants If Los Angeles wins the wild-card game. By Steve Wine Associated Press Writer MIAMI The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins battled back and forth for 60 minutes, then learned their game had been meaningless. Nick Lowery kicked a 41-yard field goal with 1:31 left to give Kansas City a 27-24 victory yesterday. A few minutes later, the Steelers completed their 31-22 victory over Tampa Bay that ensured both AFC wild-card playoff teams would be from the Central Division. "We found a way to get the win," Chiefs' first-year coach Marty Schottenheimer said.

"Unfortunately, it looks as though we won't be playing next week. But we have laid a foundation for the future." The Chiefs (8-7-1) won four of their final five games to finish over .500 for only the second time since 1981. But Kansas City failed to make the playoffs for the 17th time in the past 18 years. "An 8-7-1 record is not what we expected and not what Bengals-Vikings decided Steelers' fate, Page D-3. we will continue to expect," Schottenheimer expected at the very least to be playing the last game of the season in a position to determine our own Miami finished 8-8 and would've been eliminated from the playoffs even with a victory.

The Dolphins lost four of their final five games and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. "There have been some good things that have happened, days when we felt we were headed in the right direction," Coach Don Shula said. "And then we just couldn't put games back to back and show consistency that we had to show." Yesterday, the Dolphins rallied from a 24-14 deficit with two fourth-quarter scores to tie the game with 4:24 left, but Kansas City moved 44 yards in nine plays to set up Lowery's field goal. CONTINUED ON PAGE D-3 OMJCE KEIDAN Steelers' season a huge success TAMPA, Fla. I A egardless of whether next I weekend finds them in I Houston or mufti, the LJ vA Steelers should count the 1989 football season an unqualified success.

By battering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into submission yesterday, the Steelers completed the regular season with a record of 9 victories, 7 defeats. That may seem like a modest enough accomplishment, but upon closer scrutiny it is more than that. Suppose for a moment that someone had told you two weeks into this season that Christmas would find the Steelers still very much in contention for postseason play. Would you have laughed in that someone's face? Or would you have had the presence of mind to clap a hand to your mouth and pretend to cough? They were a sorry excuse for a football team in those first two weeks, and the scores of their games reflected that. But Chuck Noll believed in them at a time when almost no one else believed either in them or in him.

We were wrong. He was right. The offensive line that couldn't get out of its own way began opening holes for running backs. The pass rush that made quarterbacks giggle began making quarterbacks hurry their passes. The special teams became truly special.

And the rookie tailback who carried infrequently and fumbled too often started getting the football more and losing it less. They finished the season with three straight victories and five in their last six games. You will tell me their schedule in those six weeks was studded with patsies. I will tell you they came within a single officiating blunder of defeating the Houston Oilers and winning the AFC Central Division championship. "Remember," I will tell you, "that there but for the grace of Ben Dreith goes a 1 0-6 season." If only old Ben could count to three, the Steelers would not be dependent upon the Minnesota Vikings this evening.

Instead, they must hope that the Vikings do no worse than a tie with Cincinnati. A victory by the Bengals, and the Steelers are excused. Their chances now are considerably improved over what they were after the Cleveland Browns rallied to beat Houston on Saturday night. With that win; the Browns became champions of the AFC Central Division, and the Steelers became an endangered species. A victory by Indianapolis or the Los Angeles Raiders yesterday would have extinguished their playoff hopes just as surely as a loss to the Buccaneers.

But New Orleans dismantled the Colts, and the Giants dispatched the Raiders. And the Bucs, sans Vinny Testaverde, offered token resistance in a 31-22 loss. Everything that could go right for the Steelers yesterday did go right. As if on cue, a cold front descended on Florida's Gulf Coast, driving temperatures into the 30s and leaving the Buccaneers less interested in winning than in keeping warm. Even the Green Bay-Dallas game went according to divine script.

Had Dallas upset Green Bay, Minnesota would have been assured of winning the NFC Central Division. Tonight's game would then have been meaningless from Minnesota's standpoint. But because Green' Bay won, the Vikings must master the Bengals to capture the flag in the NFC Central. And their gain is the Steelers' gain. If the Vikings prevail, the Steelers will make a house call next on Gary Grandview and Company next Sunday.

If Cincinnati wins, it will become the host team and Houston the visitor for the AFC wild-card game. In either event, you will notice, the field for the AFC playoffs will include three Central Division teams among its five contestants. So perhaps Noll was not just whistling when he said after watching the Bengals and Browns use his team CONTINUED ON PAGE D-3 Notre Dame's Alvarez interviews for Pitt coaching job preferred to first complete the Cowboys' season, which ended yesterday with a loss to Green Bay. Alvarez was interviewed Thursday in South Bend, by Wisconsin Athletic Director Pat Richter about replacing ousted Badgers coach Don Morton. He also said another team is scheduled interview him this week in Miami, where Notre Dame will face top-ranked Colorado in the Orange Bowl Jan.

1. Alvarez played high school football, basketball and baseball at Bur gettstown and was an All-Big Eight linebacker at Nebraska. He coached high schools in Nebraska and Iowa before landing a position as an assistant at Iowa under Hayden Fry. He joined Lou Holtz at Notre Dame in 1987 as outside linebacker coach and, one year later, became defensive coordinator. He is credited for developing such linebackers as Michael Stonebreaker, Ned Bolcar and Donn Grimm of Scottdale.

He was named assistant head coach after the Irish won the national championship last season. tor of the fourth-ranked Irish, met with Pitt Associate Athletic Director Dean Billick for about six hours Friday. Athletic Director Ed Bozik was unable to take part because he was in El Paso, Texas, where the Panthers play Texas Saturday in the John Hancock Bowl. "It was a nice visit," Alvarez said yesterday. He added that Billick gave him no timetable for replacing Mike Gottfried, who was fired Dec, 14.

"They made it a point to let it be known they want to talk to other people." Alvarez, who will turn 43 Saturday, is the second coach known to have interviewed with Pitt. Acting head coach and offensive coordinator Paul Hackett met with Bozik for about seven hours Dec. 16. He is considered a leading candidate. Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt also has been contacted by Pitt officials.

The former Panthers offensive tackle and Baldwin High player told them he By Chuck Finder Post-Gazette Sports Writer Pitt has interviewed Notre Dame assistant head coach Barry Alvarez about becoming its next head football coach. If the Panthers want to hire Alvarez, they may have to stand in line: The Burgettstown native first interviewed with Wisconsin and will interview this week with a team he declined to identify. Alvarez, the defensive coordina INSIGHT Big Ten means big bucks for Penn State basketball Michigan, which seemingly plays on TV every week. That, alone, should put Penn State basketball into the black. There has been speculation in the Big Ten about starting a post-season conference tournament, a vehicle for huge profit.

That would almost seem inevitable if the Big Ten eventually adds a 12th university. Pitt and Rutgers have been mentioned as candidates, although Big Ten officials said they have not contacted either and have no plans for further expansion now. Then there is the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten has the best tournament record of any conference, 160-86. Last year, it sent five teams to the tournament and finished with a 15-4 record.

Illinois went to the Final Four and Michigan won the national championship. The five schools generated nearly $5 million $275,000 per team per game. Half of the money went to the participating schools. The other half went into a conference pool and was split 10 ways. Michigan and Illinois each collected nearly $1 million.

Northwestern, which finished last in the Big Ten, received $275,000 as its slice of the revenue-sharing pie. Once it is in the Big Ten, Penn State will eat from the same pie. Its NCAA Tournament cut last year from the Atlantic 10, which sent West Virginia and Rutgers, would not have been more than $40,000. Payouts to NCAA Tournament teams figure to skyrocket once CBS' seven-year, $1 billion deal kicks in for the 1991 tournament. That rights fee nearly triples what CBS is paying for the tournament under its current contract CONTINUED ON PAGE D-4 By Ron Cook Post-Gazette Sports Writer UNIVERSITY PARK I A enn State has a perfectly logical reason for joining I the Big Ten Conference.

Actually, it has a million of them. Conservatively, it should reap an additional $1 million a year in revenue from men's basketball once it becomes a full-time Big Ten member, probably in the mid-1990s. Penn State officials emphasized financial considerations were not a key factor in their decision to join the conference. They said they joined because the Big Ten universities share similar academic views. Together, they said, they will lead the reform movement in intercollegiate athletics, pushing for higher entrance standards, freshmen ineligibility and the shortening of the basketball season and spring football.

But that does not mean Penn State's bottom line will not be enhanced. Athletic Director Jim Tarman had a big smile when he said, "We've had our financial people take a quick look at this thing, and we think we're in pretty good shape." For years, Penn State football has been the anchor of the university's $16.5 million athletic budget and financed its 27 other sports teams. But men's basketball, which long has trailed wrestling in fan interest and support here, should soon become a moneymaker in a big way. For openers, there is television. There always is television.

The Big Ten has lucrative national contracts with ABC and ESPN and a regional deal fwith Raycom. By comparison, Bryce Jordan, Penn State president, and Jim Delany, Big Ten Conference commissioner, announce the Nittany Lions acceptance of an invitation to join the Big Ten. the Atlantic 10 Penn State's basketball conference since 1982 has only a regional package with Creative Sports Marketing. Both conferences split the television revenue among their schools. That means Penn State, which is expected to struggle competitively in the Big Ten in the early going and probably will be limited in its television appearances, still will receive the same money as defending national champion.