Section B • Page 18
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The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 17, 1998
Wildcats face prospect of NCAA sanctions
Booster's present casts shadows on Sept. 5 game
The Associated Press
MANHATTAN, Kan. — The Kansas State Wildcats are awaiting their first NCAA penalty of the Bill Snyder era.
After completing an internal investigation into the matter of running back Frank Murphy's car and imposing a penalty on itself, the Wildcats can only hope the NCAA does not insist on anything stiffer for last season's national junior college player of the year.
Snyder declined to say what
penalty the school had put on itself.
"I'm really not at liberty to address any of it until the process is completed," he said. "I think it's got to be pretty quick. I would guess it should be finalized within maybe a 10- or 14-day period. When it is, I'll be happy to share what I can."
The Wildcats, with 18 returning starters from last year's 11-1 team, open against Indiana State on Sept. 5 and could challenge for national honors if they are not slapped at the outset by a severe NCAA sanction.
The problem arose after Murphy signed with the Wildcats from Garden City last spring. A Kansas State booster was accused of helping to furnish him with a car.
Sources have said the school
hoped for nothing more than a two-game suspension for Murphy, who rushed for 1,370 yards and 26 touchdowns last season for Garden City. He also had 17 receptions for 266 yards and four touchdowns.
Murphy: Waits for NCAA ruling on violation.
The 6-foot-1-inch, 205-pound Florida native was named a firstteam All-American by the National Junior College Athletic Association. He led his team to the national junior college championship game, where he was voted MVP after
rushing for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
If Murphy does not have to sit out a large portion of the season, he and senior quarterback Michael Bishop, the MVP in last January's Fiesta Bowl, could give the Wildcats an explosive one-two offensive punch.
Snyder refused to speculate about what the NCAA might do.
Kansas State encountered NCAA problems several times during the 1960s and 1970s. During the past nine seasons, however, as Snyder built the Wildcats from consistent losers into a national power, there never has been a hint of NCAA scandal.
"I just hope that it's right," he said. "Whatever is right, that's the way it should be. I would be uncomfortable saying (more) at this particular time just because the process hasn't been completed yet."
With enthusiasm among Kansas State fans at an all-time high, Snyder said he was worried about boosters getting out of control and causing trouble.
"It bothers me," he said. "We all like to find some positives out of the bad things that take place, I'd like to think the positive here is that it sends a pretty clear message and warning to our constituents across the state that this is what can happen when somebody gets overzealous. And it's detrimental to our university, and our program and our young people.
"Do I worry about it? Yes, frequently."
New system seeks to better decide national champions
Associated Press
You have got your BYUs, FSUs, LSUs, OSUs,
TCUs and UCLAs. In college football, though,
there is now only one set of letters that matters
— BCS or Bowl Championship Series.
It is a new and improved version of the bowl alliance that moves the sport closer to crowning a clear-cut champion without a playoff system.
"I think it's a move forward," said Penn State coach Joe Paterno. "I hope it proves it can give us a meaningful championship game every year. And I think it's got a good chance to do it." It just might
The Rose Bowl is aboard for the first time, so are the Big 10 and Pac-10 conferences. And do not forget the complicated new plan devised to guarantee for the first time a No.1 vs. No.2 match-up in the final bowl game of the season
All 112 Division I-A teams now have a chance,
however slight, to end up in the BCS title game.
The Rose joins the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls in the BCS lineup, while the Big 10 and Pac-10 conferences join the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12 and Southeastern conferences.
Florida coach Steve Spurrier still wants a playoff but says the new system is better than before.
"Why they don't get 16 teams and start playing at the end of the season amazes me,"
Spurrier said. "This is sort of a fancy way of doing it the old way, but at least it's better than what we had in the past. At least everyone is eligible in one way or another to get to that game."
The BCS will determine which teams play in its championship game — this season it is the Jan. 4 Fiesta Bowl — with a complex point system based on polls, computer rankings, strength-of-schedule and won-loss records. The BCS then will designate six other teams for its three remaining bowls.
In all, eight teams qualify for the series. The six conference champions receive automatic bids, along with two at large teams.
"I think it's the best we're going to get for the next seven years," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said, referring to the $525 million, seven-year deal the BCS signed with ABC, which will televise the four-bowl series.
Even with all the changes, the question still remains: Will the Bowl Championship Series be able to eliminate the almost annual 'Who's No. 1' controversy?
"It's not a perfect system, and we'll continue to evaluate ways to improve it," said Roy Kramer, BCS coordinator and commissioner of the SEC. "We've taken all the basic elements people use to evaluate teams and folded them in to put the best possible system together. It gives us the best opportunity to put the best two teams on the field, without a playoff."
Kramer, who began working on the new plan two years ago when the Rose Bowl first agreed to join the alliance, said although there still were critics calling for a playoff, the BCS addressed many problems.
"We couldn't match up Penn State and Nebraska a few years ago or Michigan and Nebraska last year because of Rose Bowl commitments." he said.
"We've attempted to address a way to evaluate teams with equal records at the end of the season other than just a subjective poll," he said. "That's why we're looking at the strength-of-schedule, and if a team argues about not getting in, sooner or later they will have to admit they were hurt by the schedule."
Previously, The Associated Press media poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll were the major factors in determining bowl matchups. Under the new system, the polls count only for 25 percent.
But there is still a chance for split national champions. That has happened three times in the '90s, including last season when Michigan was No.1 in the AP poll and Nebraska topped the coaches' poll.
The coaches' poll, where the ballots are secret, will crown the winner of the BCS title game as its national champion, no matter what happens in the other bowl games. Voters in the AP poll, where the ballots are made public, can consider
"We've taken all the basic elements people use to evaluate teams and folded them in to put the best possible system together."
Bowl Championship Series Coordinator
Roy Kramer
other teams for No.1 just as they have in the past.
Say, for example, that three teams were undefeated at the end of the season, and the title game is a ho-hum affair, while the third unbeaten team wins convincingly. In the AP media poll, that third team still could win the national title, while only the winner of the BCS' top game can win the coaches' poll.
The biggest winners are the Pac-10 and Big 10 — those teams now can aim for a national title. Until Michigan won the AP title last year, the last team from those conferences to win a national championship was Southern California in 1978.
UCLA coach Bob Toledo said: "I'm not sitting here beating my chest saying we're going to win the national championship. I think it a realistic goal, and it's good to have a chance."
WSU coach assistant self-report violations
The Associated Press
The school will report itself to the Missouri Valley Conference, which will relay the report to the NCAA.
WICHITA—Wichita State University's new women's basketball coach and one of his assistants unwittingly committed two NCAA violations by attending an all-star game last week, the school said.
Darlene Bailey, senior associate athletics director, said Wichita State likely would punish itself by taking away two of the 40 days allowed for evaluating prospects.
Coach Darryl Smith and assistant Brad Rustan attended the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association all-star game Aug. 5 at Topeka.
NCA4 rules prohibit contact with or evaluation of prospects during a "quiet" period. Aug. 1 through Sept. 8 is one of four quiet periods during this academic year.
Three signed by Wichita State — LaToya Jackson of Wichita East, Ashley Stephens of Wichita Heights and Amber Krumbholz of Overland Park-St. Thomas Aquinas — played in the all-star game.
But several who played in the game still are unsigned by any college, technically making them Wichita State prospects.
Smith, who came to Wichita State on June 10 from Metro State in Denver, said he attended the game to show his three signees "the proper attention," because he did not see them play in the Sunflower State Games.
Wichita State also committed a violation when it allowed Rustan to accompany Smith to the game.
Rustan, who joined Smith's staff last month, has not taken a certification exam that every coach must pass before recruiting off-campus.
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