COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Bowls Still Are Not Governed by Calendar

Remember Nov. 17--the date a team can receive an official bowl invitation?

Yes, well, the bowl representatives don’t. Instead, they have been wheeling and dealing as if there were only 24 minutes, not days, until the matchups can be formalized.

A quick look at the big six New Year’s Day bowls: Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar, Cotton and Citrus:

ROSE BOWL--The exception to the feeding frenzy. Barring upsets, it will be undefeated Washington vs. once-beaten Michigan.

ORANGE BOWL--The great unknown. The popular opinion is that Nebraska will finish the season 10-1, earn the automatic Big Eight Conference berth and play the Nov. 16 loser of the Florida State-Miami game. Wrong. It now appears--and there’s a catch to all of this--that the winner of that game probably will accept an Orange Bowl bid to play the Big Eight champion, which--sorry Cornhusker fans--very well could be Colorado. We like the Buffaloes’ chances simply because Nebraska still has to play Colorado and Oklahoma.

FIESTA BOWL--The Fiesta folks want Notre Dame so badly, they have all but set up permanent residence in South Bend, Ind. As it stands, the Fiesta Bowl would probably even take a thrice-beaten Irish team.

Of course, what the bowl really wants is for Notre Dame to finish the regular season with an 11-1 record--the Irish lost to Michigan in their opener--thus making possible a matchup against the Florida State-Miami winner.

But here’s the aforementioned catch: Notre Dame can’t afford another loss if it wants a chance at playing the Seminole-Hurricane winner. Another Irish defeat would send the Florida State-Miami winner to the Orange Bowl, where it can earn a bigger payoff and have a slightly easier time against the Big Eight champion.

If you’re keeping track of such things, Notre Dame still has, among others, USC and Tennessee at South Bend and Penn State at State College, Pa. Complicating matters is the loss of Notre Dame starting defensive linemen Bryant Young and Eric Jones to injuries. Both suffered broken ankles against Air Force last Saturday. Young and Jones will be replaced by two true freshmen, John Taliaferro and Germaine Holden, who came to Notre Dame as outside linebackers and never played a down lineman’s position until fall practice.

But we still like Notre Dame’s chances of winning the remainder of its games.

Fiesta Bowl subplot: Let’s say Miami beats Florida State, finishes the season undefeated and has its choice: Fiesta Bowl or Orange Bowl. What to do? Well, consider this: the Orange Bowl pays more, but at least one major conference commissioner says he thinks NBC, which televises the Fiesta Bowl, would bump up the payoff if it were a national championship game. That’s a big consideration because the Fiesta is without a title sponsor and could use the extra income.

One other thing to remember: Miami, which will be pressured by the Orange Bowl people to stay home on New Year’s Day, might try some tough negotiating with Notre Dame. If the Irish want a shot at the national championship, they might have to agree to play the Hurricanes in future regular seasons. The intense rivalry came to an end--at Notre Dame’s insistence--last year.

SUGAR BOWL--Right now, it’s Florida vs. Miami (if it loses to Florida State), Penn State or California, which might end up in the Fiesta Bowl instead if Notre Dame loses another game or two.

COTTON BOWL--Texas A&M; appears to be the favorite to win the Southwest Conference’s automatic bid. If the Aggies make it, look for the Cotton Bowl to go after Alabama, mostly because of the Gene Stallings connection. The Alabama coach played and coached at Texas A&M.;

CITRUS BOWL--The Atlantic Coast Conference champion--probably the winner of Saturday’s Clemson-North Carolina State game--will play Penn State or Illinois. Even if North Carolina State finishes the season undefeated, it is unlikely a matchup against the Miami-Florida State winner will take place, because the Citrus Bowl can’t compete financially with the other major bowls.

If you’re wondering why the Big Ten has earned its well-deserved reputation as the most arrogant and overrated conference in the country, simply examine its recent decision to sign with the Holiday Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.

With the stroke of Commissioner Jim Delany’s pen, the Big Ten managed to remove itself from the so-called bowl alliance and the consortium’s quest to create, beginning next year, a more viable national championship scenario. The conference also made few friends among the consortium’s bowl participants--the Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Fiesta.

Here’s what happened:

(1) The Big Ten demanded that its conference runner-up be guaranteed a place on the bowl alliance roster, which already included Notre Dame, two at-large selections and the champions of the Southwest Conference, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Eight and Big East. The conference argued that its vast television appeal, its tradition and prestige merited such consideration.

(2) The bowl alliance members pointed out that the Big Ten champion already has an automatic invitation to play in the highest-paying bowl--the mighty Rose--and that the conference runner-up wasn’t worthy of a guaranteed spot. After all, said the members, a non-champion Big Ten team played in the Sugar Bowl in 1983 and ‘77; in the Cotton Bowl in 1986; in the Fiesta Bowl in 1985, ’83 and ‘80; in the Orange Bowl in 1976 and ’75. The Big Ten’s record in those games: 4-4--hardly a tradition of dominance.

(3) The alliance said no to the Big Ten’s demands, causing the conference poobahs to storm off and eventually sign a deal with the Holiday Bowl and Citrus Bowl. It was announced last Saturday.

(4) This December, the San Diego-based Holiday Bowl, which also has the Western Athletic Conference champion, will get the No. 2 Big Ten finisher, and beginning next season, will get its choice of the No. 3 or No. 4 conference teams. There are a handful of possible variations, but basically this is the agreement. In fact, John Reid, executive director of the Holiday Bowl, said the WAC is ready to sign a deal that would keep its champion coming to San Diego through 1995. The Citrus Bowl gets the conference runner-up beginning in December 1992.

(5) The Big Ten, while making the good people at the Holiday Bowl and Citrus Bowl extremely happy, probably overplayed its hand and, because of the strategy, could be frozen out of the national championship picture in future years.

“They were probably a little paranoid,” said one bowl director, who requested anonymity. “They didn’t like their chances in the consortium.”

A major conference commissioner said he couldn’t understand the wisdom of a deal that would preclude a Big Ten team from playing in higher-paying bowls such as the Cotton, or even the Fiesta or the Blockbuster.

And an executive director of an alliance bowl said he couldn’t believe how poorly the situation was handled by the conference. He said representatives from his bowl were on their way to a Big Ten game last weekend when an administrator from a conference school--not Delany--was kind enough to tell them not to bother, that the deal with the Holiday Bowl and Citrus Bowl had been signed.

“We called our guys back,” the executive director said. “They were en route.”

Add bowl fallout: With the Big Ten out of the picture, the Pacific 10 runner-up has a much better chance of becoming an at-large consortium team next season. Jim Muldoon, Pac-10 assistant commissioner, said his conference would welcome such an invitation. . . . Want another reason why the meetings between the Big Ten and the bowl alliance failed? Try this: “The hatred between Penn State and the Big East . . . is unbelievable,” one bowl executive director said.

Arkansas probably won’t win the Southwest Conference, but the Razorbacks (4-2) seemingly have recovered from last season’s disastrous 3-8 record, their worst finish since 1952.

Truth be known, the Razorbacks didn’t expect to be in the SWC this season. In 1990, they announced their intention to join the Southeastern Conference and begin play in all of that conference’s sports but football in 1991. They would join the SEC football rotation in 1992.

At the time, Arkansas officials expected the SWC to vote them out of the league but honor its scheduling commitments through this season. Instead, the SWC members voted to keep the Razorbacks in the conference in 1991. No dummies, the members noticed the paydays--split by the conference teams--from Arkansas’ consecutive Cotton Bowl appearances in 1989 and ’90. They also noticed that Arkansas was supposed to play Miami in a $1-million game in Manchester, England, this season.

As it turns out, the Razorbacks flopped last season and didn’t bring a dime to the conference in postseason play. And this year, the promoters of the Manchester game couldn’t come up with the necessary monetary guarantees, which didn’t exactly please SWC officials.

Making matters worse for the conference is this irony: Arkansas, if it beats Baylor on Nov. 2, could be leading the SWC in football, and on Nov. 4, the Razorbacks, NCAA cross-country champions in 1990, will run for the SEC crown in that sport. Back in Fayetteville, Ark., the Barnhill Arena basketball court already bears the SEC logo.

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

1. Florida State 7-0 2. Washington 6-0 3. Miami 6-0 4. Michigan 5-1 5. Notre Dame 6-1 6. Florida 6-1 7. Penn State 6-2 8. Nebraska 5-1 9. California 5-1 10. Alabama 6-1

Waiting list: North Carolina State (6-0), Iowa (5-1), Texas A&M; (4-1), Colorado (4-2), Illinois (4-2), East Carolina (5-1).