NEW YEAR’S DAY BOWL GAMES : Mountaineers Hope to Avoid Landslide : Sugar Bowl: A Florida victory would mean no shot at national championship for West Virginia.

OK, let’s get right to it.

Is West Virginia worthy? Are the Mountaineers (11-0) deserving of our attention? Has Team Salt-of-the-Earth been shunned as it hemmed and clawed its way up the polls while no one was looking?

Or are the Mountaineers the Beverly Hillbillies in cleats, country bumpkins run amok in a sea of city folk. Should beating up on football road kill--i.e. Rutgers, Temple--qualify you for the national championship of anything?

The debate may or may not be settled tonight in the Louisiana Superdome when the No. 3-ranked Mountaineers face No. 8 Florida in the USF&G; Sugar Bowl.

If, as some suspect, the high-powered Gators (10-2) pass and run the Mountaineers back to the high country, the question will be moot.

Florida is favored by almost a touchdown. (See what these Mountaineers mean about respect?)

But should West Virginia pull off the upset while undefeated Nebraska loses to Florida State in the Orange Bowl, the Mountaineers will be demanding their share of the national title. West Virginia could hope for a split in the polls. The Associated Press title will no doubt go to the Nebraska-FSU winner. But the Mountaineers rank second in the CNN/USA Today coaches’ poll behind Nebraska and could rightly stake a claim with a Sugar Bowl victory.

West Virginia Coach Don Nehlen has backed off the hue-and-cry tone of defending his team and respectfully offers: “If we win the football game, in my opinion, we’ll get a share of the national championship. In my opinion.”

Florida Coach Steve Spurrier agrees. Any undefeated team that beats his Gators should not be denied.

“If they go 12-0, certainly they deserve to be a national champion,” he said this week. “Anybody that goes 12-0, at the level of play they’ve played, deserves a share.”

Of course, anyone who has studied Spurrier knows the thought of losing this game hasn’t really crossed his mind this week.

The Mountaineers have stated their case, noting that they were picked to finish fourth in the Big East and were not ranked before the season; that they did not enter the coalition poll until Sept. 27, and that contrary to reports of their schedule being a breeze, they defeated three teams ranked in the final coalition poll--No. 10 Miami, No. 15 Boston College and No. 22 Virginia Tech.

Some Mountaineers believe the poll deck was stacked from the start and that not pitting West Virginia against Nebraska is nothing less than an injustice.

“I can’t lie,” said Ed Hill, a West Virginia receiver. “We think the two undefeated teams should be facing each other. Let’s go out and see who is the best undefeated team. Everybody wants to see Florida State win, and Bobby Bowden win his first (national title).

“If we win, it’s going to be, ‘Oh, West Virginia hasn’t played anybody.’ If we lose, everyone will say, ‘See, we told you they weren’t any good.’ So we’re going to go out and win for ourselves.’ ”

Baiting the Mountaineers all week has been Jack Jackson, one of Florida’s many star receivers.

He had 51 catches and 11 touchdowns this season and figures he might get about half those totals against a soft Mountaineer defense.

And what about West Virginia’s boast of winning the Big East Conference?

“We say, ‘Yeah, you all won the Big Easy . . .’ like they have the best conference, with Rutgers? I don’t even know if West Virginia will be the best team we’ve played this season.

“Just beat us, then you’ll have my respect. They measure their team on a win over Miami (17-14). I don’t see how much that means against a team that’s been struggling this year. When we see the film of Miami-West Virginia, we’re not looking at Miami of the late 1980s. And they only beat them by three points at home.”

One reason Jackson is licking his chops: Florida’s offense averaged 476 yards this season, including 339 passing. The Gators have a bona fide star at tailback in Errict Rhett, the first player in Division I history to rush for 4,100 yards and catch 140 passes, and four receivers--Jack Jackson, Willie Jackson, Harrison Houston and Aubrey Hill--who have combined for 6,257 and 68 touchdowns in their careers.

That said, the Mountaineer defense has not been of national championship caliber, giving up an average of 230 passing yards per game.

An 11-0 secondary?

“Not at all,” Jack Jackson said. “I didn’t realize they give up that many yards passing. But so be it. What do we average passing--330? Someone’s in trouble.”

What Jackson doesn’t mention is that his own defense is no great shakes either, having given up an average of 225 passing yards, as it faces a formidable 1-2 pair of West Virginia quarterbacks, Jake Kelchner and Darren Studstill.

“We need to improve in that area, we all know that,” Spurrier said of his defense.

Spurrier’s offense, too, will be at a disadvantage without freshman quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who injured his right knee in the Florida State game and will not play.

Wuerffel and junior Terry Dean had been sharing the position most of the season, but it was Wuerffel who led the Gators in passing with 2,230 yards and 22 touchdowns.