Well-Meaning Scribes’ Poll Ruthlessly Circumscribed

As they say in the rankings business, only the good (polls) die young.

A system that proposed the most accurate way of determining the nation’s top schools in a non-playoff world in which poll position means everything in determining multimillion-dollar bowl payouts lasted . . .

. . . two weeks.

Nothing like the threat of a lawsuit to snuff out a promising top-25 life.

The much-anticipated Football Writers Assn. of America poll has been suspended indefinitely this week after media giant Gannett, which owns USA Today, accused the FWAA of copyright infringement.

The FWAA poll, which debuted Oct. 5, melded the weekly Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll with a computer component from MIT math wizard Jeff Sagarin, with each component given one-third weight.

The bowl alliance intimated it would take a hard look at the FWAA rankings and might consider using it to seed schools next year when the Big Ten and Pacific 10 conferences join the so-called “super alliance.”

Apparently, USA Today wasn’t crazy about that prospect.

“Your organization is not entitled to engage in a substantial taking of the USA Today coaches’ poll without authorization,” Gannett attorneys wrote the FWAA last Thursday. “This poll is not merely a simple set of facts, but rather consists of evaluations--based on professional judgments and opinions--of the relative strengths of college football teams.”

Interesting timing. The FWAA made public its plans for a new poll in June. The FWAA contends it did receive permission to use the coaches’ poll from the American Football Coaches Assn. Ironically, many coaches who vote in the weekly USA Today/ESPN poll publicly supported the FWAA’s poll.

Note: A strikingly similar (wink, wink) composite poll could be located on the Internet this week without FWAA endorsement--reportedly the independent work of Sagarin--but no telling how long that will last.

Pssst, before another legal ax falls, we offer you at great risk perhaps the last Absolutely Not An FWAA-Sanctioned poll: 1. Nebraska, 2. Florida State, 3. Florida, 4. Penn State, 5. tie, Tennessee and Washington.

As a nonprofit organization of about 800 members, most working or retired writers, the FWAA does not have the financial clout to challenge Gannett in court.

Too bad.

As a self-confessing, card-carrying, dues-paying ($25 a year) FWAA member, I thought the poll had merit:

1. The FWAA rankings were not released until October, allowing most teams to play at least five games before being evaluated. The first AP and coaches’ polls are released in August and often rely on guesswork and reputation to establish important preseason “poll” position.

2. The computer element, which considered important variables such as strength of schedule, helped offset inherent biases in the AP and coaches’ poll.

Biases? Last year, an AP voter from Ohio gave Ohio State half a vote for the national championship. Two years ago, two coaches with an obvious bent against Steve Spurrier anonymously voted Florida 11th and 13th in the final coaches’ poll after the Gators were blown out in the Fiesta Bowl by Nebraska.

The low-balling knocked Florida to No. 3 behind Tennessee, which Florida defeated, 62-37, in the regular season.

This isn’t college basketball, where polls are relatively meaningless because there is a 64-team tournament to decide the champion.

Until there is a national playoff, polls mean everything in college football; the whims and prejudices of voters can affect the outcome of national titles.

“What we were trying to do was establish a poll that would be the fairest and most accurate barometer of strength and would combine subjectivity with strength of schedule data,” FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson said. “Obviously, there are people out there who believe this is a threatening concept. We still believe and will always believe it is a good idea.”

For now, R.I.P.P. (Rest In Poll Peace).

MUTINY ON THE BIG EAST BOUNTY?

Commissioner Mike Tranghese is denying speculation the Big East is doomed, triggered by Syracuse’s possible defection to the Big Ten or Atlantic Coast conference.

“No, I don’t think we’re going away,” Tranghese said by phone this week. “We’re here to stay.”

The league has everything it needs to be a top-drawer conference--guaranteed spot in the bowl alliance for its champion, television deals with CBS and ESPN.

Shoot, the eight-team Big East lacks only six or seven quality teams.

The slide has raised concerns the conference will disband and be auctioned off in a manner similar to the defunct Southwest.

The Big Ten, which has 11 teams, is looking to add a 12th so it can form two six-team divisions.

Notre Dame has been courted for years but does not want to give up its independence.

So is it Syracuse?

“I don’t know if there’s anyone out there who knows that,” Tranghese said.

If Syracuse leaves, the theory goes, it would set off a defection chain reaction that wouldn’t end until Colorado and Texas ended up as members of the new Pac-12.

Yet, in a teleconference with Big East presidents last week, Tranghese said he sensed no mounting support for a breakup.

He cannot deny the Big East is in serious jeopardy of not having an eligible school to satisfy the Liberty Bowl, which gets the Big East’s No. 4 team.

The schools competing for the berth--Pittsburgh (3-3), Miami (2-4), Temple (2-5) and Boston College (2-5)--have considerable work left if any is going to get the six victories needed for bowl participation.

Among the Big East’s “upper crust,” Virginia Tech (5-1) has lost to Miami of Ohio, West Virginia (5-1) to Boston College and Syracuse (5-3) to North Carolina State, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech.

“I think we’ve just hit a bad cycle,” Tranghese said.

The cycle would include a gambling scandal at Boston College and Miami’s struggles after NCAA probation.

The league doesn’t figure to get stronger with the addition of Connecticut, which has decided to upgrade to Division I-A in football beginning in 2004.

“We’re eight years away from that,” Tranghese said. “The whole world could blow up in eight years.”

The commissioner is taking the “Ask not what your conference can do for you . . . “ position.

“Everybody says to me, ‘What can you do?’ ” Tranghese said. “This isn’t up to me. It’s interesting, when we have a lot of success in basketball and football, I’m told how great our coaches are. And when we struggle, I’m told, ‘What are you going to do?’ This ultimately comes down to recruiting student athletes and coaching.”

CAUGHT LOOKING

All Michigan State needed to do to go 6-0 and set up an epic top-10 battle of undefeated teams against 6-0 Michigan this week was beat 2-5 Northwestern last Saturday.

Northwestern won, 19-17.

“Looking ahead is the devil,” Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett said Tuesday.

Michigan State won’t deny it.

Check out star tailback Sedrick Irvin’s comments on last week’s Big Ten conference call.

“I take each game one at a time,” said Irvin, a Miami native, “but it seems like my teammates here, they don’t care about anything else but Michigan. The people around the community don’t care about anything else but Michigan. I go to the mall, it’s ‘Hey, hey, hey, we want you to beat Michigan.’ Nobody ever says, ‘Hey, we want you to beat Memphis,’ or anything like that. The main agenda, I guess, is to beat Michigan, and the people in the community will not let you overlook that.”

“It’s hard to say I’m not thinking about Michigan, because in the back of my mind, I am.”

That was all Northwestern needed for the bulletin board.

Barnett blamed/credited the media for Irvin’s frank comments.

“You guys baited him into all that,” Barnett said.

Anything we can do to help, Gary.

COAST TO COAST

* The Pac-10 race for the Rose Bowl is a four-school race: Washington State (4-0) and Washington (3-0) don’t need help. If either wins out, it goes to the Rose Bowl, with a Nov. 22 Apple Cup showdown in Seattle likely to decide matters. UCLA (3-1) needs to win its last four games and Washington State to lose twice. Arizona State (3-1) has to win out and needs a UCLA loss and two Washington defeats.

* All the news that’s fit to print? The New York Times computer poll this week has Tennessee ranked No. 1 and Penn State No. 13.

* With 29 touchdown passes in seven games, Kentucky sophomore quarterback Tim Couch already has had an amazing year. That said, he needs to average 6.5 touchdown passes in each of his team’s last four regular-season games to break David Klingler’s single-season NCAA record of 54, set in 1990. Klingler accomplished the feat in 11 games for Houston.

* The bowl alliance’s national title game rotation with ABC has been set: Next year, under the new deal that encompasses the Big Ten and Pac-10, the Fiesta Bowl will host the game Jan. 4, 1999. The bowl rotation then goes Sugar (Jan. 3, 2000), Orange (Jan. 3, 2001) and Rose (Jan. 3, 2002). The Rose Bowl on Jan. 3? Yep.

* Give Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning credit. Yes, he lost to Florida three times, but he also beat Alabama three consecutive seasons. Before Spurrier arrived in Gainesville, beating the Crimson Tide was far more important to the Volunteers.

* After a one-game suspension, Doug Johnson returned to practice this week for Florida, but Spurrier isn’t saying who will start at quarterback for the Gators’ Nov. 1 game against Georgia. “The quarterback who starts against Georgia will be the one we think is our best player to help us win the game,” Spurrier said. “I don’t know who he is yet.”

* Most cases, I disapprove of a team being dropped in the polls after a victory. However, it’s hard to argue Penn State losing its No. 1 position after a come-from-behind 16-15 victory at home against Minnesota.

“I wouldn’t say we defeated them,” Coach Joe Paterno said. “I’d say we lucked out.”

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Too Close for Comfort

North Carolina State (3-4) and Wake Forest (3-4) have been involved in three games this season decided by two points or fewer, but that’s well short of the Division I-A record for most games in a season decided by less than a field goal. A look:

* 6--Kansas, 1973: (def. Iowa St., 22-20, Colorado, 17-15, and Missouri, 14-13; lost to Tennessee, 28-27, and Nebraska, 10-9; tied Oklahoma St., 10-10. Record in close games: 3-2-1. Overall season: 7-3-1.

* 5--Illinois, 1992: def. Ohio St., 18-16, and Wisconsin, 13-12; lost to Minnesota, 18-17, and Northwestern, 27-26; tied Michigan, 22-22. Record in close games: 2-2-1. Overall: 6-4-1.

* 5--Columbia, 1971: def. Princeton, 22-20, Yale, 15-14, Rutgers, 17-16, and Dartmouth, 31-29; lost to Harvard, 21-19. Record in close games: 4-1-0. Overall record: 6-3-0.

* 5--Missouri, 1957: def. SMU, 7-6, and Nebraska, 14-13; lost to Kansas St., 23-21, and Kansas, 9-7; tied Vanderbilt, 7-7. Record in close games: 2-2-1. Overall record: 5-4-1.