COLLEGE FOOTBALL / CHRIS DUFRESNE : This Would Be a Perfect Way to End

Leave it to know-nothing pollsters and a lame-duck bowl alliance to deprive the country of a possible national championship matchup between the two Division I schools most likely to finish the season unbeaten.

Florida-Ohio State?

Florida State-Arizona State?

Um, we were sort of thinking Wyoming-Army.

Obviously, Cowboys vs. Cadets isn’t quite what the Sugar Bowl has in mind.

Don’t worry, power-ratings freaks, it won’t happen.

Wyoming is the only 7-0 team in the country, has the nation’s longest current winning streak at 10 games, yet this week checks in at only No. 23 in Casey Kasem’s Associated Press countdown.

Army (5-0) is off to its best start since 1985, leads the nation in rushing, averaging 367.6 yards a game, is sixth in total defense, yet has to force a smile being one of “others receiving votes.”

“Even if we went 13-0, who knows, they might not even put us in the top five,” Wyoming quarterback Josh Wallwork said this week from Laramie.

Top five? Well, isn’t that wishful thinking.

There are nine unbeatens remaining in Division I-A. The view here is that Wyoming and Army have the best chance of running the table. Here’s a handicap:

1--Wyoming (7-0). Upcoming: Fresno State, Southern Methodist, San Diego State, Colorado State. Note: The Cowboys also face a likely Dec. 7 Western Athletic Conference title game against Brigham Young or Utah.

2--Army (5-0). Upcoming: Tulane, Miami (Ohio), Lafayette, Air Force, Syracuse, Navy. Note: The Dec. 7 showdown against Navy may be better than the Big 12 title game the same day.

3--Florida State (5-0). Upcoming: Virginia, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Southern Mississippi, Maryland, Florida. Note: The Seminoles get the Gators at home Nov. 30.

4--Ohio State (5-0). Upcoming: Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan. Note: Michigan? Ah, no sweat.

5--Florida (6-0). Upcoming: Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida State. Note: The Gators probably will play Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game.

6--Alabama (6-0). Upcoming: Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana State, Mississippi State, Auburn. Note: It’ll be tough for the Crimson Tide to roll through this slate.

7--Arizona State (6-0). Upcoming: USC, Stanford, Oregon State, California, Arizona. Note: Arizona. When have the Wildcats ever caused the Sun Devils grief?

8--California (5-0). Upcoming: Washington State, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford. Note: Stanford? Piece of cake.

9--West Virginia (6-0). Upcoming: Temple, Miami, Syracuse, Rutgers, Virginia Tech. Note: The Mountaineers could lose three of their last five.

Should Wyoming and Army finish as the only two unbeatens, expect no hue and cry from pundits demanding a collegiate playoff because the schools are not a part of the alliance power structure.

Wyoming has two things going against it: One, it’s Wyoming, and two, it’s Wyoming.

Laramie has a few media outlets, though you need to bring a really long extension cord.

Wyoming also makes checks payable to the WAC, which keeps Anthony Robbins’ number on speed dial.

‘We don’t get the respect we deserve,” said Wallwork, the nation’s total offense leader at 370.8 yards per game. “But what can we do? We just have to keep winning. You can’t really do anything about it.”

This business of poll charting, of course, has too much to do with preseason projections made before any games are played, which pretty much eliminates dark horses such as Wyoming that don’t start out ranked in the top 25.

Strength of schedule counts too, and both Army and Wyoming have no case on this front. Army lined up two Division I-AA opponents this year, plus a plate full of Division I-A pastries: Ohio, Duke, North Texas, Rutgers.

Wyoming wasn’t much braver: Iowa State, Idaho and Western Michigan.

“I totally understand that,” Wallwork said of the credibility question. “I wish we could play Florida and Florida State. I don’t make the schedule.”

All Wallwork can do is beat the teams the athletic director lines up.

As for the polls, Wallwork says, “I have no clue, I don’t know how that stuff works. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

Wallwork’s offense, which features the nation’s No. 2 receiver, Marcus Harris, ranks second nationally. Wallwork ranks sixth in pass efficiency with a rating of 161.

Wyoming’s only pipe-dream chance is to make a run similar to BYU’s in 1984, the year the Cougars beat the “soft schedule” rap all the way to the national title.

The Cowboys, though, are too far behind in the polls to make a serious run.

That doesn’t mean Wallwork won’t try.

“We’re going to take this down to the last shot,” he said. “We’re going to win every game we can. We’re not going to take anything less. I don’t see us losing, and I don’t see us dropping off.”

GIVE IT A REST

Let’s put an end to speculation that, should either Arizona State or Ohio State end up No. 1 or No. 2 at season’s end, the school might be allowed out of its Rose Bowl contract--for a certain, hefty price--to play in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.

“First off, we are not talking about it, it is not being discussed at the conference level, at the Tournament of Roses, by ABC, by anyone,” Jack French, executive director of the Tournament of Roses, said this week. “Second, we have a contract.”

That contract stipulates the champions of the Pacific 10 and Big Ten conferences will play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

Painful as it is, knowing the Sugar Bowl’s bid to match the nation’s top two teams might be foiled by either current No. 2 Ohio State or No. 4 Arizona State, the new agreement that eliminates those flaws does not take effect until after the 1998 season.

French said there have been Rose Bowl buyout discussions in the past but added all parties have agreed to stick with the contract.

NCAA VS. GEORGE JONES

Because he simply had to have a better car, and used his mother to co-sign the loan from a financial planner with NFL ties, San Diego State tailback George Jones lost a chance at the Heisman Trophy and perhaps first-round NFL money next spring.

Gee, was it worth it?

“He paid a dear price,” Aztec Coach Ted Tollner said this week.

The proposition was lose-lose for Jones, even if he was innocent. After sitting out the opener for improperly using a rental car to do charity work, Jones missed three more games while the school conducted an in-house investigation on the car-loan matter before handing over its findings to the NCAA.

Had the NCAA cleared Jones, which it did not, he still would have missed important games in his senior season.

The NCAA ruled the loan violated the “extra-benefits” rule and also cited Jones for an ethical code breach for not keeping his story straight.

Jones ended up with a three-game suspension, was ordered to pay restitution and will return to the lineup next week against New Mexico.

The lesson here for college players?

Get a bike.

FIELD GOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Daniel Hernandez is not only a kicker for SMU, he is also an All-American on the school’s soccer team.

This can get complicated: On Sept. 20, Hernandez had a 7:15 p.m. soccer match in the opening round of the Gold Rush Classic in Fresno. After the game, he took a red-eye to Baltimore, rested a bit, then kicked a field goal and two extra points in SMU’s 19-17 loss to Navy.

No time to sulk. Hernandez returned to Dallas with the football team, arriving at 2 a.m. Hours later, he flew back to Fresno in time to play in his team’s 11 a.m. game against Bowling Green.

The soccer team won the Gold Rush Classic, and Hernandez was named most valuable player, scoring two goals and adding an assist in three games.

Twice this season--Aug. 31 and Sept. 14--Hernandez has played a soccer and football game in the same day. In two years of two-sport duty, the junior has missed only one soccer game because of a scheduling conflict.

Because he is on a football scholarship, he was forced to miss a Sept. 7 soccer match because the football team was playing at Arkansas.

COACHES AND OVERTIME

There have been 10 overtime games played in Division I-A so far this season, and it has become clear some coaches haven’t got a handle on how to approach the new tiebreaker rule implemented this year.

Case in point: After Stanford tied Oregon, 24-24, with a last-minute field goal Saturday in Palo Alto, the Ducks got the ball back at their 20 with 50 seconds left with three timeouts remaining.

Instead of trying to win the game in regulation, Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti elected to run out the clock and take his chances in overtime.

Oregon lost, 27-24.

HURRY-UP OFFENSE

--The military academies are 12-3 this season, with Army leading the charge at 5-0, followed by Navy (4-1) and Air Force (3-2).

--No dig at Miami (right), but Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden says the toughest school his team has played this year was North Carolina.

--Wyoming quarterback Wallwork attributes his success this year to off-season surgery to correct a carpal-tunnel problem in his right (throwing) wrist. When told carpal-tunnel syndrome was a common problem for sportswriters, caused by excessive work on personal computers, Wallwork remarked, “I don’t think that’s what I got it from.” Wallwork said his injury was caused by slam-dunking a basketball too hard in high school.

--Remember when Oklahoma used to get excited only about winning national championships? Last weekend, after Oklahoma upset Texas in overtime, the team got a hero’s welcome back in Norman. “The reaction was unbelievable,” first-year Coach John Blake said. “When we got back into town, people were blowing horns.”

The victory made the Sooners 1-4.