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COMMENTARY : Polls Give Reasons to Run Up Scores

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WASHINGTON POST

To college football’s elite programs, it’s never been simply a question of how they play the game. It’s also never been a question of whether they win or lose. The big dogs are going to win -- what matters is by how much.

Just ask Temple Coach Ron Dickerson, who led the Owls to State College, Pa., last weekend to face his former boss, Joe Paterno, and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Dickerson and the Owls were thrashed, 66-14 -- and the Nittany Lions moved from No. 7 to No. 6 in the national rankings.

“I guess if you’re the coach of the losing team, you have to throw in the white towel,” Dickerson said. “But if you look across the country, it’s not just the Temples that are geting beaten by astronomical scores -- it’s some very good football teams that are getting beaten.

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”. . . It just seems like the good teams are getting bigger and bigger, and it’s tough to catch up. I’m not trying to be critical of anyone, but maybe a solution needs to be reached in college football to balance things out.”

The powerhouses have more incentive than ever for running up scores -- with top rankings in the Associated Press media and USA Today/CNN coaches’ polls and a potential $13 million payout in the Bowl Alliance “championship” game at stake. Points on the field can translate into points in the rankings. So Saturday, a fan would have seen: No. 1 Florida State 77, North Carolina State 17; No. 2 Nebraska 77, Arizona State 28; No. 3 Texas A&M; 52, Tulsa 9; No. 4 Florida 62, Tennessee 37; No. 6 Southern Cal 45, Houston 10; No. 9 Colorado 66, Northeast Louisiana 14.

“With the (alliance), and the ability to select No. 1 and No. 2, it has made it much more dramatic,” Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder said. “People have run up scores before, but not for the same reason and not as consistently. I think we need to seriously look at the alternative (of) a playoff system.”

But is the better team supposed to stop playing hard, even if it has second- and third-stringers in the game? And the truth is some lesser teams sign on as fodder to get a big payday.

Realistically, when a team such as Colorado plays a team such as Northeast Louisiana, could there be any other possible result than a blowout? Colorado led 49-7 at halftime, and after one drive in the second half, Buffaloes Coach Rick Neuheisel played backups the rest of the way.

The problem is backups for a top 10 team often are better than the opposition’s starters. And these backups are striving to impress.

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“You have an obligation to the players,” Neuheisel said. “. . . While I think you have to be careful not to run it up, it’s important that we send a message to our players that when you get a chance, you’re going to go in and get a chance to do what we practice.”

Some blowouts have been between two solid teams. Florida beat a Tennessee team ranked eighth in the country, and Florida State routed the team that finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season.

After the Seminoles whipped Duke, 70-26, in their opener, Blue Devils Coach Fred Goldsmith complained that Bobby Bowden had unmercifully run up the score. Bowden sent Goldsmith a note of apology. Two weeks later, Bowden’s team, presumably under orders not to show up N.C. State, racked up 77 points despite not scoring in the final 10 minutes.

And since when is a Pacific-10 Conference team such as Arizona State supposed to be pitied by a Big Eight Conference team such as Nebraska?

“It’s kind of difficult to manage,” Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. “We had 63 points at the half. I’m sure maybe some of the folks on their side thought we were running it up. . . . I thought we better score while we can and get some of our players out of there.”

Saturday Bowden’s team faced Division I-AA Central Florida in a game that could test the limits of the Doak Campbell Stadium scoreboard.

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“It’s our job to keep that from happening,” said Central Florida Coach Gene McDowell, a former Bowden assistant whose team moves to Division I-A next season. “It’s not Bobby’s job to keep the score down. . . . You’ve got to let the players play. The idea that it’s Bobby Bowden’s job to reduce the score is so ridiculous.”

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