COLLEGE FOOTBALL/ CHRIS DUFRESNE : No Fiesta for Other Bowls; There’s Only One Pasadena

Mercifully, just as Nebraska did against Florida in the waning seconds, it’s time to take a knee on the college football season.

This was the year the lack of a playoff system was circumvented with a clever bit of Bowl Alliance rigging.

Yes, the new alliance worked. This time. It took Michigan’s upset of then-No. 2 Ohio State to do it, but the Fiesta Bowl was able to match the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams in an undisputed championship game.

Some matchup, as Nebraska trounced Florida, 62-24.

Will the Sugar Bowl, which gets the top alliance picks next year, be so lucky?

And at what cost?

The fear all along in making one bowl more important than the others was that it would diminish the rest.

And that’s what happened. There were unsold tickets for the Sugar Bowl matchup between Virginia Tech and Texas. The Cotton Bowl was a disaster. There were 58,214 tickets sold for Oregon against Colorado, but only 35,000 people actually turned out on a miserable day.

More people, 63,425, were there to see a Sept. 30 game between Grambling State and Prairie View A&M; than the 60-year-old Jan. 1 “classic.”

Television ratings for the Orange Bowl, an attractive matchup between Notre Dame and Florida State, were off 36% from last year because there were no national championship implications.

Anyone catch the Gator Bowl (Syracuse 41, Clemson 0)?

Didn’t think so.

The big bowl winner?

The Rose.

The Rose had no desire to relinquish any of its bloom and stuck to its 50-year allegiance to pairing champions from the Pacific 10 and Big Ten conferences, rather than joining the Bowl Alliance.

Monday, the Rose produced the best bowl show of the bunch--Northwestern’s honorable comeback, then ultimate fall, against USC.

The Rose received higher overnight ratings, 19.3 to 18.8, than the much-hyped Fiesta.

A lot of that had to do with Northwestern’s dramatic season and Nebraska’s lopsided victory in the Fiesta.

But do you think the Rose Bowl is now more inclined to join the Bowl Alliance?

There are no simple answers in determining a national champion, other than having a team as good as Nebraska every year to remove all doubt.

The short-term solution is for the Big Ten and Pac-10 to strike a special circumstances deal with the alliance. The plan being kicked around has merit: Should the Big Ten or Pac-10 have the No. 1 team at regular season’s end, the Rose Bowl would be host for the national championship game that year.

If the Rose Bowl has No. 2, that team would be freed to play No. 1 in the alliance game.

Long term, a national championship game after the bowls is the logical answer.

That way, the major bowls could retain their importance in the staging of “playoff” games.

Until then, the countdown to next year’s Carquest Bowl begins.

THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY

One reporter’s season in review:

COACH OF THE YEAR: Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer had a great year; Mike Bellotti did a fine job at Oregon.

Ah, just checking for a pulse. Slam dunk, it’s Northwestern’s Gary Barnett.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Tommie Frazier. Is it too late to hold a Heisman recall election?

PLAYER OF THE YEAR, 30 YEARS OR OVER: Ron Weaver (alias Joel Ron McKelvey), the 30-year-old defensive back who infiltrated the Texas Longhorns. He swears he is not writing a book.

Note: There’s no truth to the rumor the Longhorns are investigating another age discrepancy question after a pair of dentures were found in the Texas locker room.

SNUB OF THE YEAR: Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting but only second-team All-Southeastern Conference in a vote of coaches. The first-team quarterback was Peyton Manning of Tennessee.

SNUB II: Northwestern linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, who led the Big Ten in tackles but was not nominated for the Butkus Award.

SNUB III: Nothing personal, Steve Spurrier, but the final CNN/USA TODAY coaches’ poll has Tennessee No. 2 ahead of Florida, even though your Gators beat the Volunteers, 62-37, earlier this season.

GUT-CHECK AWARD: Virginia Tech, which began the season 0-2 and finished 10-2 with a top-10 ranking.

MOST OVERRATED TEAM: Texas A&M; was supposed to challenge for the national championship, but instead will have to remember the Alamo Bowl after finishing 9-3 with poll-busting losses to Texas Tech, Colorado and Texas.

HOT AIR AWARD: Howard Schnellenberger, who said it was his “avowed goal” to return Oklahoma to glory after being hired Dec. 16, 1994. He resigned one year later after “leading” the Sooners to 5-5-1 record.

CHEESIEST MOTIVATIONAL PLOY: Kansas Coach Glen Mason told his team before its crushing Aloha Bowl victory over UCLA that he changed his mind and was not taking the head coaching job at Georgia.

BIG-MONEY PLAY: Notre Dame 161-pound defensive back Ivory Covington’s last-minute stuff of 240-pound tight end Ron Leshinski on a two-point conversion attempt to preserve a 28-27 victory over Army. The victory proved to be worth $8 million to Notre Dame, which needed a top-10 finish to advance to an alliance bowl game.

MOST IMPRESSIVE STREAK: Florida State’s 11 consecutive bowl game victories under Coach Bobby Bowden.

STREAK II: Northwestern tailback Darnell Autry’s 12 consecutive games with more than 100 yards rushing.

PLAY OF THE YEAR: Virginia’s goal-line stand on the game’s final play to defeat Florida State and end the Seminoles’ 29-game Atlantic Coast Conference winning streak.

BOOB AWARD: Virginia trainer Joe Gieck tried to trip a Virginia Tech player as he streaked down the sideline for a touchdown on the game’s final play.

BOOB II: The LaGuardia Airport security agent who made Eddie George put his Heisman through the X-ray machine, causing a chip in one of the trophy’s fingers.

RUN OF THE YEAR: Frazier’s 75-yard zigzag in the Fiesta Bowl.

SAME OLD SONG: Prairie View A&M; set the collegiate record with its 51st consecutive defeat Sept. 30 against Grambling, then closed out with Nos. 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56.

TWIST AND SHOUT: Northwestern kicker Sam Valenzisi tore knee ligaments while celebrating during a 35-0 victory over Wisconsin.

GAME OF THE YEAR: Michigan’s 31-23 victory over No. 2 Ohio State, which set the stage for the Fiesta Bowl to match undefeated Nebraska and Florida in a national championship game.

FASTEST FADE: Ohio State, poised for a national championship run, finished with uninspired losses to Michigan and Tennessee (Citrus Bowl).

TOP TWO 1996 HEISMAN CANDIDATES FROM SAME CONFERENCE: Southeastern quarterbacks Wuerffel and Manning.

KILLER CONFERENCE: The Big Eight, which expands to the Big 12 next year, finished with four teams ranked in the top 10: Nebraska (1), Colorado (5), Kansas State (7) and Kansas (9).

QUOTE OF THE YEAR: Nebraska’s Osborne: “I guarantee you that I wouldn’t have one guy out on the field if I thought he did what he’s charged with.”