SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, December 9, 1993
NCAA could develop playoff system
Coaches open debate on postseason play
By Stephen Hawkins The Associated Press
Like Christmas shopping, the debate on how to pick college football's national champion is making the rounds.
Fans are talking about it, some coaches are campaigning for it, the NCAA and CFA are studying it, and some groups are proposing a playoff series.
It's easy, some say. Set up a system, such as a 16-team playoff, and determine a true national champion. Others propose a four-team playoff after the bowls.
"It's easy to sit down and say we are going to have a playoff," said Roy Kramer, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. "There are a lot of issues that have to be resolved before we could get to a playoff."
Major issues include the format, how to determine playoff teams, the effects on the current bowl setup and
the bottom line—money.
Nineteen bowl games, most backed by corporate sponsors, are expected to pay out nearly $70 million to teams this year. And with revenue-sharing agreements in many conferences, that money will be spread out among more than half of the 106 Division I A schools.
Kramer, whose conference is locked into agreements to provide teams for five bowls, admits that a playoff system would have to provide at least that much money to be feasible.
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Citrus Bowl executive director Charles Rhoe said estimates about how much money a playoff could generate had been "grossly exaggerated," noting that the NFL makes only about $30 million for the Super Bowl.
And how would the bowls, the money generators along with TV, fit into a playoff system?
Troy Mathieu, executive director of the Sugar Bowl, said he had not seen any proposal which would be able to incorporate bowls into a playoff system and maintain any resemblance of the current situation.
The NCAA has formed a group to
study the advantages and drawbacks of a I-A playoff. However, no changes could be made until at least the 1995 season. A College Football Association committee will deliver a report on postseason football next June.
Several groups, including Nike, Disney and the Aloha Bowl, have made playoff proposals. But they haven't gotten very far.
So the debate continues: Do once-beaten Florida State deserve to play undefeated Nebraska for the national title in the Orange Bowl? Did West Virginia, the only other eligible undefeated team, deserve a title shot? And what about once-beaten Notre Dame, which handed Florida State its only loss?
"Can you explain to me how our one loss knocks us out and Florida State's one loss doesn't do them in?" Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz asked.
West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilton said he would support a playoff system if the bowls were included.
"I think some pluses would be a definite national champion and economic benefits," he said.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said
he was not sure a playoff would end the controversy.
Alabama coach Gene Stallings opposes a playoff.
"I don't know how you can pick eight top teams without somebody complaining about which eight and where they have to play the games," he said.
"I think the bowl alliance can always work out to where No. 1 can play No. 2, and you can settle who the national champion is," he said.
Auburn coach Terry Bowden, whose team is undefeated but ineligible for a bowl game because of NCAA probation, favors a playoff. Before coming to Auburn, Bowden coached teams in the NAIA and NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
"It's a wonderful system and it works. And it would work with the bowls," he said.
Critics claim a playoff would force players to miss more classes and make the season too long. Bowden disagrees.
"I coached Division 3," he said. "We had a 14-game schedule, and we didn't ever miss classes ... and were through by Christmas."
Team managers have all-American importance
By Anne Felstet
Korean sportswriter
Kansan sportswriter
Managing a varsity team is not the most glorified position a person could ever hope to fill, but Jeff Himes, administrative assistant and head football equipment manager, said he never had to hunt for people to assist the Kansas football team.
The football program employs nine managers, one for each coach, and two people who do the laundry. The men's basketball team has five managers, headed by assistant coach Steve Robinson.
The managers arrive a few days earlier than the players do in August to set up the equipment that will be used throughout the season.
All nine managers then attend every practice and make sure the coaches and players have everything they need. Four managers attend the away games, but as the season progresses more managers travel to help the players with the extra laundry resulting from the colder weather, Himes said.
He said all nine managers flew to Hawaii last year when Kansas played in the Aloha Bowl, which it won against Brigham Young 23-20.
Senior Patrick Gormann has been a footballmanager for four years, and he said he felt like part of the team.
"The players are good friends of mine," he said.
"The players are good friends of mine," he said. Senior center Dan Schmidt said the team would be chaotic without the help of the managers, especially during away games. A player's job is to be focused on the game, and the manager's job is to alleviate distractions, he said.
"We definitely notice what they do for us on game days," he said. But he said the team did take it for granted that everything was in order.
On game days, the managers organize the locker room and hang each player's jersey, pants and helmet in their lockers.
He said the coaches appreciated the managers' work, even if they did not always acknowledge it because of their hectic schedules.
"Everybody has their role," Himes said. "The managers just go in and do their job."
Gormann said he was interested in being a football manager because football was his favorite sport and he wanted to be associated with it.
"I'm with the team, I get to know the players, and I get to see how college football works," he said.
He said his pet peeve with managing the team was hearing fair-weather fans gripe about the players.
"They don't realize how much time the players put in and how hard they try," he said of the fans.
Schmidt said that the managers put in longer hours than the players but that they did not get credit for the work.
He said they could be considered student athletes just as much as the players because of the time they put in. They know what it is like to balance practice and class, he said.
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