Miami Finalizes Bowl Plans Today : It’s Fiesta If Lions Win; Otherwise Could Be Orange

Games at University Park, Pa., and Lincoln, Neb., today will determine whether the Miami Hurricanes, the nation’s No. 1 college football team, can stay home for the holidays.

The Fiesta Bowl, which has lined up Miami and No. 2 Penn State in the biggest postseason coup since the Sugar Bowl sweet-talked Alabama and Notre Dame into their 1973 game, will be rooting for Penn State to beat Pitt.

The Orange Bowl, which has produced three of the last five national champions, will be pulling for Pitt to upset Penn State and for fifth-ranked Nebraska to beat No. 3 Oklahoma. If Pitt and Nebraska win, Miami will play the Cornhuskers on New Year’s night in the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta will be left with once-beaten Penn State and dreams of what might have been.

Meanwhile, Kevin Sweeney, of the Fresno Sweeneys, will go for the record book tonight.

The son of Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney needs 173 yards passing in the Bulldogs’ Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game against Utah State to move ahead of Doug Flutie and into first place in passing yardage for a college career. Flutie threw for 10,579 yards at Boston College.

Besides 10-0 Miami, 10-0 Penn State, 9-1 Oklahoma and 9-1 Nebraska, the only other team in position to make a pitch for No. 1 is fourth-ranked Arizona State, 9-0-1, which will represent the Pacific-10 Conference in the Rose Bowl. The Sun Devils end their regular season today at No. 14 Arizona.

Contrary to NCAA regulations, most of the bowl invitations already have been issued. Today is merely RSVP day.

The visiting team in the Rose Bowl will be decided when sixth-ranked Michigan plays No. 7 Ohio State at Columbus for the Big Ten crown. The loser goes to the Cotton Bowl.

Eighth-ranked Louisiana State has clinched at least a tie for the Southeastern Conference championship and can move closer to a Sugar Bowl berth by defeating Notre Dame tonight at Baton Rouge. Ninth-ranked Alabama can tie LSU for the SEC title by defeating No. 15 Auburn next week (both teams are idle this weekend).

That would leave the decision up to the Sugar Bowl, which prefers Alabama but has said it would invite the highest ranked team in the Associated Press poll to represent the SEC against the Oklahoma-Nebraska loser.

The rest of today’s schedule involving the AP’s Top Twenty finds No. 10 USC at No. 18 UCLA, No. 11 Arkansas at Southern Methodist, No. 12 Washington at Washington State, Texas Christian at No. 13 Texas A&M;, No. 16 Stanford at California, Texas at No. 17 Baylor, and South Carolina at No. 19 Clemson. Georgia, the No. 20 team, is not scheduled.

Pitt not only is Penn State’s oldest rival but is the last team to win a regular-season game from the Nittany Lions. That came in the 1984 finale, 31-11. Penn State has won all 21 regular-season games since.

Penn State quarterback John Shaffer had, according to Coach Joe Paterno, “probably one of the best games he’s ever had” in last Saturday’s 24-19 victory over Notre Dame. Shaffer was 9-of-13 passing for 162 yards, including a 37-yarder for the go-ahead score, and had a one-yard run for the decisive touchdown.

Meanwhile, Pitt was starting its third quarterback in as many weeks in beating Rutgers 20-6. Joe Felitsky made his first collegiate start and passed for 259 yards and one touchdown.

Sal Genilla, who started a week earlier against Miami, was hospitalized with an asthma attack, and John Congemi, Pitt’s No. 1 quarterback, suffered an injury the previous week.

Besides the Orange Bowl, Nebraska has a fan in Colorado Coach Bill McCartney, whose team upset the Cornhuskers, 20-10, last month and lost to Oklahoma, 28-0, a week ago.

“I like the Cornhuskers, I like the home field advantage and I like Nebraska’s defensive line,” McCartney said. “I’m also banking on Oklahoma turning the ball over (something the Sooners haven’t done in their last two games). There is a law of averages, and with that Wishbone offense, they ought to turn it over once in a while.

“Nebraska has one thing we didn’t have to defend Oklahoma better--that’s the size and strength up front to keep them from getting that (wishbone) going inside. Nebraska has a much better chance of getting some offense going than we did. Nebraska has the kind of speed you need to combat their speed.”

Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer won’t argue about that.

“I agree with (Coach) Tom Osborne’s assessment before the season that Nebraska has more team quickness than in the past,” Switzer said. “They have better team speed on defense. Their linemen have the ability to run, their secondary has the ability to run. Offensively, they still have great team speed.”

The annual Big Eight showdown matches the two highest-scoring teams in the country--Oklahoma at 44.6 points per game, Nebraska 39.9--against the two top defensive teams--Oklahoma has yielded an average of 163.4 yards per game, Nebraska 221.9.

Arizona State will be out to snap a four-game losing streak -- by a total of 21 points -- against Arizona.

“I think the state of Arizona can be real proud of these two teams,” Arizona State Coach John Cooper said.

Arizona Coach Larry Smith said that “Arizona State earned the title. Our thought is that if you can’t win the title, then try to beat the team that won it.”

“We don’t dwell upon the four previous victories over ASU,” Smith added. “Each victory was hard-earned and different from the others. It’s a state pride thing.”

Ohio State, meanwhile, needs only a tie against Michigan to go to the Rose Bowl, but Buckeyes’ Coach Earle Bruce still wishes the Wolverines hadn’t lost to Minnesota last week.

“I would normally like Michigan to come into Ohio Stadium undefeated,” he said. “It’s always a defensive battle. The team whose defense plays the best and whose kicking game plays well will win.

“We’ll go for the tie if we have to. You’d be crazy not to.”

Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh, normally a reserved individual, boldly predicted, “I guarantee you we’ll beat Ohio State and be in Pasadena.”

What did Coach Bo Schembechler think of Harbaugh’s brashness?

“I would worry more if he predicted defeat,” he said.

If things go according to form, the anticipated bowl lineup looks like this:

Fiesta--Miami-Penn State; Rose--Arizona State vs. Michigan-Ohio State winner; Orange -- Oklahoma-Nebraska winner vs. Texas A&M; or Arkansas; Cotton--SWC champion vs. Michigan-Ohio State loser; Sugar--LSU or Alabama vs. Oklahoma-Nebraska loser.

Citrus -- Auburn-USC; Sun--Washington vs. LSU or Alabama; Aloha--Arizona vs. undecided; Gator--Clemson-Stanford; Bluebonnet--Baylor-Georgia Tech; Freedom--UCLA vs. Air Force or Brigham Young; Hall of Fame--Boston College-Georgia.

Holiday--WAC champion vs. Iowa; All-American--Florida State-Indiana; Peach--North Carolina State-Virginia Tech; Independence--Mississippi-Mississippi State winner vs. Texas Tech; Liberty--Kentucky-Tennessee winner vs. Minnesota; California--Miami, Ohio.-San Jose State.