The Polls Agree: Miami Is No. 1 : College football: Both the media and the coaches select the Hurricanes as the nation’s best.

A 10-year-old named Alan asked the other day how the champion was determined in college football.

Well, he was told, they play an entire season, put the top teams in the bowl games and, when it’s all done, a group of people sit down and vote on who they think is best.

He looked confused.

“Why don’t they just play each other?” he asked.

When you’re 10, everything seems possible.

But it’s a question being asked once again all over the country after yet another controversial end to the college season. People are wondering why every other major sport crowns its champions in crowded stadiums before national television audiences, while college football chooses to do it with a secret ballot.

If only Colorado had won in the Orange Bowl on Monday, it would have been so simple. Instead, Notre Dame defeated the previously unbeaten Buffaloes.

So, Miami was voted No. 1.

Notre Dame claims to be No. 1.

And Florida State thinks it’s No. 1.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we’re the best team in the country,” Miami Coach Dennis Erickson said. “Regardless of what anyone else says, we’re No. 1.”

Since all the records are roughly comparable--Miami is 11-1, Notre Dame 12-1, Florida State 10-2 and Colorado 11-1--the only yardstick would seem to be direct competition.

Notre Dame beat Colorado. Miami beat Notre Dame. Therefore, Miami is No. 1. But Florida State beat Miami.

“You can justify why Miami won it,” Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz said. “What you can’t justify is why we didn’t. We played the toughest schedule. We had the best record.”

This is not a regional dispute. There are plenty of unhappy people in Florida, too.

“I think we’re the best football team in the country right now,” Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden said. “But they don’t make the polls based on just the end of the season. Over the 12-game haul, we just don’t hold up at 10-2.”

Florida State quarterback Peter Tom Willis said that shouldn’t matter.

“We haven’t played any pansies, and we just beat one of the best teams in the country,” he said Monday in Tempe, Ariz., after his Seminoles had beaten Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, 41-17. “I think we should be No. 1. We beat Miami, and we beat Nebraska by a lot of points. We lost our first two, but we won at the end when it counts.”

Some say that is another inequiy of the system. Lose early in the season, as Miami did to Florida State in October, and there is time to crawl back to the top of the polls. Lose late, as Notre Dame did to Miami in its regular-season finale or Colorado did Monday to Notre Dame, and there is no chance to bounce back.

In the final Associated Press poll, in which sportswriters and sportscasters vote, Miami finished No. 1, followed by Notre Dame, Florida State, Colorado and Tennessee.

The United Press International poll of coaches had one difference, Florida State second, ahead of Notre Dame.

USC, a 17-10 winner over Michigan in the Rose Bowl, was eighth according to AP, ninth in UPI’s voting--one place behind Michigan in each poll.

Not every rating had Miami No. 1, however. The college football power index, a complex system based on the team’s relative strength, changes in personnel, coaching, strength of schedule and current form, showed Notre Dame No. 1, followed by Florida State, Miami, Colorado and Clemson.

Under that method, USC was eighth, Tennessee 13th.

Then there’s David Rothman, executive director of something called the Foundation of Analysis of Competition and Tournaments. He announced Tuesday that under his system, Miami and Notre Dame were co-champions, based on 3,455 games played by 673 teams in the NCAA, NAIA and four independents. Rothman said that Miami had bigger margins of victory, but that Notre Dame had a tougher schedule.

Crazy? Who’s to say one system is better than another.

Holtz has his own idea.

“The national championship should be decided by computer,” he said. “You get so many points for every game you win and so many points for every game your opponent wins.”

Or there’s the radical idea of having the two top teams play and whichever scores the most points wins.

Bo Schembechler did not go quietly into retirement.

A day after losing his final game to USC in the Rose Bowl, 17-10, Michigan’s coach was still complaining about a holding call that nullified the Wolverines’ crucial 24-yard gain on a fourth-quarter fake punt.

Schembechler insisted it was a bad call, and he was no less insistent after reviewing a game film.

“I looked at it first thing last night, as soon as I got back to the hotel,” he said Tuesday. “Damn right. I slept better knowing I was right.

“Oh, I’ll remember this play. This play will go down in history like the phantom touchdown (apparently a reference to one scored by USC’s Charles White in the 1979 Rose Bowl game) and all those others.

“If you look at the film and see that we got beat on both sides of the ball, offense and defense, don’t come in here and tell me we deserved to win the game. But, being a professional coach, I know we could have still won it.”

Had the Wolverines done so, they might have figured in the voting for No. 1. They began Monday third in the nation, but wound up seventh in the AP poll and eighth in UPI’s.

“Maybe it was fate,” Schembechler said. “Maybe the good Lord didn’t want my team to win.”

TOP TEN

Associated Press

Team Record 1. Miami (Fla.) 11-1-0 2. Notre Dame 12-1-0 3. Florida State 10-2-0 4. Colorado 11-1-0 5. Tennessee 11-1-0 6. Auburn 10-2-0 7. Michigan 10-2-0 8. USC 9-2-1 9. Alabama 10-2-0 10. Illinois 10-2-0

United Press International

Team Record 1. Miami (Fla.) 11-1-0 2. Florida State 10-2-0 3. Notre Dame 12-1-0 4. Colorado 11-1-0 5. Tennessee 11-1-0 6. Auburn 10-2-0 7. Alabama 10-2-0 8. Michigan 10-2-0 9. USC 9-2-1 10. Illinois 10-2-0