Delay of Game in Miami Is No Penalty for Bruins

Bet the folks who came up with the bowl championship series formula never thought to factor in the possibility of a hurricane.

Mother Nature brought a little suspense--the kind we like--into a college football season so tainted by artificial suspense and made today just a little bit better.

The most serious aftereffects of Hurricane Georges are being felt in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where the storm killed more than 300 people and caused more than $1 billion in damage.

But even in the world of college football, Georges lingers.

Here it is, Dec. 5, 10 weeks after the hurricane swept through the Caribbean and into the Gulf Coast, and it continues to affect the national-championship picture.

If the Bruins had played Miami on Sept. 26 and lost--remember, they were pretty banged up coming out of the Houston game the week before--they would have long since been removed from the championship picture. The Rose Bowl would occupy their thoughts right now. It sure wouldn’t be considered Plan B, or “the other bowl,” as UCLA Coach Bob Toledo referred to it the other day.

If UCLA had played Miami already and won, the Bruins could rest their case on their undefeated season, having done all they could to win a spot in the Fiesta Bowl.

“I wouldn’t have to be thinking about it, I’ll tell you that,” Toledo said. “But I don’t know about sleeping easier. I haven’t slept for a while.”

It’s doubtful the airplane seat on the flight to Miami on Friday made sleeping any easier. But the rescheduled game is a trip the Bruins had to make. It has turned into one they’re glad to make.

“I’m glad we have a game now,” Bruin linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo said. “It’s even worse just to sit there and have to watch everyone else playing.”

Now the Bruins get to take part in what Toledo calls “championship Saturday.”

Will No. 1 Tennessee win its Southeastern Conference championship game against Mississippi State? Will No. 3 Kansas State beat Texas A&M; in the Big 12 title game to stay undefeated as well?

That’s the good type of suspense. If Tennessee, Kansas State and No. 2 UCLA all win, then we get the bad kind of suspense: sitting around to see what the BCS computer has to say.

Weren’t computers supposed to make everything faster? Why is it they always seem to make us wait?

We have to wait at the airport security checkpoint while the computer boots up to prove it really isn’t a bomb in our luggage.

We have to wait while our computers download files from the Internet.

And now the college football world has to wait every week to find out who has the inside track to the Fiesta Bowl.

One of the most appealing aspects of sport in the first place is, it gives you definitive answers. Look at the scoreboard, check the stats. No room for argument.

The NFL tiebreaker scenarios might be complex, but at least they can tell you that if certain teams win by a certain combination of points, this team will make the playoffs. Occasionally all teams can do is win and then hope another team helps them out. At least they’re putting their fate in the hands of other football players.

Now it’s up to the algorithms of computers and the quirks of voters.

Toledo should be able to stand in the locker room and promise his players that if they win today, they’ll go to the Fiesta Bowl.

Unfortunately, he can’t. He doesn’t know for sure. No one does.

They never would have made a movie about Knute Rockne if he had told his men to “persuade the voters for the Gipper.”

I had an Associated Press poll vote in 1993. Instead of making me feel powerful, it made me feel sick.

Florida State and Notre Dame were contending for the national championship that year. They each had one loss going into the New Year’s Day bowls. Notre Dame beat Texas A&M; in the Cotton Bowl, then Florida State beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

The Florida State-Nebraska game was dramatic, coming down to a missed field goal by Nebraska on the final play of the game.

Leaving the Orange Bowl that night, I thought it would have been nice to know that was the play that determined the national championship. It wasn’t.

No one could say for sure, because it depended on whether the voters thought Notre Dame or Florida State had the better season.

I realized the championship was up to me and the rest of the voters. All of the passes and tackles had merely been a prelude to the real contest, taking place in hotel rooms where voters phoned in their choices.

Nature bursting into the football season is something I can live with. The unpredictable polls are something the NCAA could and should prevent.

And waiting for the lords of college football to do the right thing is an activity that brings no excitement at all.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com