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Monday, November 13
Trying to please the computer is never easy

By Bob Harig
Special to ESPN.com

Florida is all too familiar with the scenario. The votes are in, but. . . we'll get back to you.

While the state still tries to figure out its confusing political mess, another battle brews within the boundaries of college football. And good luck winning any arguments on this topic.

Thanks to the BCS -- Bad College System? -- the usual rancor among Miami, Florida State and Florida has the smell of smoke-filled, back-room politics.

The Hurricanes are ranked second in both major polls, but third behind the Seminoles in the all-important Bowl Championship Series standings that will determine the two teams to play in the Jan. 3 national championship game in the Orange Bowl.

UM defeated FSU 27-24 on Oct. 7, thus the higher poll rankings. But the computers in the BCS formula have had the Seminoles ranked ahead of the Hurricanes for the past two weeks.

And now the University of Florida, after defeating South Carolina to claim the SEC East title, has a budding candidacy as well. What if the one-loss Gators defeat the Seminoles in Tallahassee Saturday? Then what?

It's to the point where two of the warring factions found themselves almost apologizing for easy victories Saturday.

The Hurricanes led Pittsburgh by just six points at halftime, before pulling away to a 35-7 victory. The game was in hand early in the fourth quarter, so Miami coach Butch Davis began substituting. Understandably, he was questioned about that.

"Crucify me, but it would have been much worse if we had lost (quarterback) Ken Dorsey or (defensive lineman) Damione Lewis to an injury with the game out of reach," Davis said. "You'd like to think that 35-7 was enough. Everybody says that winning by 20 points is enough, that they don't give you any more for 20 than they do for 1,000."

This is what it has come to in college football, the game within the game. It is not enough to cruise to an easy victory. Better make sure you crush the opponent for good measure. After all, those BCS computers take into account margin of victory.


	Marvin Minnis said Florida State was playing against a computer and "We didn't win."

Don't think FSU coach Bobby Bowden wasn't aware, a week after dealing his son and Clemson coach Tommy Bowden a 54-7 defeat.

"I told them we're not on television, but we are on the computer," Bowden said of his team's game against Wake Forest, a 35-6 victory that was also wrapped up early in the fourth quarter.

Still. "We didn't get up like we were supposed to," said FSU receiver Marvin Minnis, who scored three touchdowns. "We didn't play Florida State football and it showed. We weren't just playing against Wake Forest, we were playing against the computer. And we didn't win."

It's hard to imagine heads hanging after a relatively easy victory before your big in-state rival comes to town. But for the Seminoles, they realize their performance against 1-9 Wake Forest might not have been good enough to keep them in front of the Hurricanes in the BCS standings to be released Monday.

"It wouldn't surprise me one bit," Bowden said. "But with us playing Florida and they're (Miami) not playing anybody who's ranked (Syracuse), that's big. If we beat Florida, I can't see us but moving back up."

What if Florida wins? Do the Gators have a shot? That would be victories two weeks in a row over Top 25 teams, with the SEC title game still to play. Their lone loss to Mississippi State came in September. And they might get to avenge in the SEC title game.

What about Washington, which is seemingly out of the chase despite just one loss and a victory over Miami? What about Oregon, which is behind Washington, a team the Ducks defeated? Their arguments seem to be just as strong as the ones coming from Florida.

What a system.

Sure, it's better than the good ol' days, when bowl deals were brokered with games still to be played. In that scenario, you could bet an Oklahoma-Miami game would already be a done deal for the Orange Bowl.

And the BCS is better than its predecessors known as the Bowl Alliance and Bowl Coalition, which simply relied on the whims of poll voters -- sometimes biased, sometimes uninformed -- to determine the teams.

Yes, the BCS is a smarter, cleaner way to pick the teams. It removes some of the flaws of partisanship. It looks at cold, hard numbers, crunches them and spits out the teams. It eliminates the needs for bowls to panic and pick teams for fear of losing them.

But the way things now stand -- even after a close call for No. 1 Oklahoma on Saturday against Texas A&M -- there are five one-loss teams who could make a legitimate argument for facing the Sooners in the national title game.

At least the Florida voters aren't allowed to decide this one.

No. 200
Don Nehlen won his 200th game as a college head coach, a 31-24 overtime victory over Rutgers. It wasn't easy. Of course, little at West Virginia is. Ask Bobby Bowden, who was once hung in effigy at the school, hastening his move to Florida State a quarter-century ago.

Don Nehlen came along later and has won 147 games in 21 seasons, making him the winningest coach in school history. That is pretty remarkable in a state not known for an abundance of football talent.

"In my last report on recruits, the only state in America that had less high school football players sign Division I contracts was Maine," Nehlen said. "And we don't play them."

Nehlen announced last week that he would be retiring after this season.

"This is an 80-85 hour per week job," said Nehlen, who had undefeated regular seasons in 1988 and 1993, only to lose in a bowl game. "It is seven days every week for eight or nine months a year. There is not a whole lot of time for anything else. I'm not going to sit around and play bingo, that's for sure, but I'd like find out if there is something else to do out there. Hell, I don't even know how to keep score at bowling."

Tide talk
Mississippi State's Jackie Sherrill says he is too old to return to alma mater, Alabama, as coach, but that hasn't stopped the speculation. Sherril, a 1966 Alabama grad, received a contract extension through the 2004 season.

Nonetheless, he was the top pick to coach the Crimson Tide, according to a Mobile Register poll. He finished ahead of Clemson coach Tommy Bowden -- who just received a contract extension from the Tigers -- Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, Miami coach Butch Davis and Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe.

"My pedigree is Alabama and Coach (Bear) Bryant," Sherrill said. "You can't change that. Do I have feelings for Alabama? Yes, I shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears there. But my loyalty (to State) is something that's very important to me."

Running it up
It was no surprise when former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne won his state's 3rd Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. He had 82 percent of the vote to defeat Democrat Rollie Reynolds. For Osborne, it was his most dominating victory in the first week of November since Nebraska defeated Iowa State 73-14 on Nov. 4, 1995.

The Cornhuskers could have used a little bit of his karma on Saturday. They suffered a 29-28 defeat to Kansas State -- a school Osborne never lost to -- to fall out of contention for the national title and Big 12 North races.

Bob Harig covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times.

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