Pac-10 Isn’t so Sure Bigger Is Any Better

Welcome to UCLA vs. Texas at the Rose Bowl, our Pacific 10 Conference game of the week.

Hey, a fella can dream, can’t he?

The Pac-10 and Texas have been two-stepping together for years now. The relationship has been more on-again, off-again than a Liz Taylor marriage.

The Pac-10 made runs at Texas in 1990, ’92 and ’94. There were times Texas was willing but handcuffed by state politicians, who have fought hard to keep Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and Texas A&M; hog-tied to the same conference.

Once, it was part of the Pac-10’s mission statement to add Colorado and Texas to its portfolio. Yet, the last serious run at both was in 1993 and ‘94, when the breakup of the Southwest Conference shook loose college football’s moorings.

Will the Pac-10 ever expand?

“I think we’re in more of a step-back-and-observe mode than anything else,” Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said. “We have always expressed an interest in Texas and Colorado, but I think there may have been some cooling to the very concept of expanding and to getting bigger than 10.”

The present college landscape, however, sits below Mt. Vesuvius.

Eight schools from the Western Athletic Conference already have seceded and plan to form a new conference next year.

Another key move will come early next year if Notre Dame decides to join the Big Ten Conference.

“I think there is a chance of a domino effect with Notre Dame,” Hansen said.

A Notre Dame shift to the Big Ten might cause a chain reaction that leads to major conference reshuffling.

Will the Big Ten stop at 12 teams, or pursue a master plan of a 16-team league?

Will that lead to the demise of an already weakened Big East?

Is college football headed toward four, 16-school super conferences?

The real key to another Pac-10 run at Colorado or Texas is the future of the Big 12, which has failed to live up to expectations. The conference was born in 1994 with the merging of former Big Eight Conference and four defunct SWC schools: Texas, Texas A&M;, Baylor and Texas Tech.

The Big 12 originally signed television deals totaling $145 million, but the recent formation of the bowl championship series has left it playing catch-up.

The conference recently extended its contract with Fox, but it has yet to redo its deal with ABC.

The Big 12 is also looking for new leadership after the resignation of commissioner Steve Hatchell.

If the Big 12 founders, the Pac-10 probably would pick up the spoils.

“As long as the Big 12 is stable, we’re pretty much stable also,” Hansen said.

HEISMAN BLACKOUT

Here’s a theory, and it’s all mine.

The reason the Pac-10 has not had a Heisman Trophy winner since USC’s Marcus Allen in 1981?

Night games at Arizona State.

Some of the more marquee performances in recent Pac-10 history have gone virtually unseen in the East, where the largest bloc of voters resides.

Two years ago, Jake Plummer-led Arizona State shocked Nebraska, 19-0, just as bartenders were shouting last call in Schenectady, N.Y.

Last year, Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf passed for 384 yards in a 35-34 Midnight Special win over the Sun Devils.

In an age of fiber optics and round-the-clock ESPN highlights, how come news of key Pac-10 performances still is being passed along by word of mouth?

It happened again Saturday night.

One of the best college games in recent memory, a last-second thriller starring Washington quarterback Brock Huard and Arizona State’s J.R. Redmond, ended at almost 2 a.m. in the East.

What a thrill it must have been for night watchmen in Boca Raton.

In Washington’s 42-38 win, Huard completed 27 of 47 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns, the last a 63-yard game-winning heave to Reggie Davis on fourth and 17 with 28 seconds left.

Redmond, Arizona State’s all-purpose back, ran for 108 yards in 22 carries, had four catches for 68 yards,returned a punt 61 yards to set up one score and had a brilliant punt return for touchdown called back because of penalty.

We understand night games are necessity at times in scorching Tempe, and that television rules all in the Pac-10.

But can anything be done?

“We’ve got about as many games on TV as you can have,” Pac-10 spokesman Jim Muldoon said, “but some of them are going to be at night.”

What about moving ASU-Washington to later in the year so it could be played during the day in Tempe?

Muldoon said Saturday’s Pac-10 opener was scheduled in 1989, and that Washington has no bye weeks later in the season.

The Pac-10’s problems remind of a quote attributed to former Washington State and USC basketball coach George Raveling:

“The only thing wrong with this conference is the time zone.”

GIDDY VALLEY

Not only is Penn State Coach Joe Paterno a cinch to get win No. 300 on Saturday against Bowling Green, but the school is also celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the 1973 squad led by Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti.

That team finished 12-0, yet ended up fifth in both the Associated Press and United Press International polls behind Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama.

Penn State was the Brigham Young of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, penalized by pollsters for playing watered-down schedules.

“I know it was a big deal to Joe,” Cappelletti said of the snub. “It wasn’t that big a deal to me personally. We had a very good football team and we liked each other. We couldn’t control anything else.”

Cappelletti, who will attend Saturday’s reunion, says he hasn’t seen some of his teammates since he left campus.

“It’ll be a unique feeling, I’ll tell you that,” he said.

Cappelletti rushed for 1,522 yards and 17 touchdowns in 1973 and had three straight 200-yard-plus rushing games.

In the most stirring Heisman acceptance speech ever, Cappelletti dedicated the award to his younger brother Joey, who was battling leukemia.

Cappelletti, who had a good NFL run with the Rams and Chargers, lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife and four sons.

You can bet Cappelletti will again remind Paterno that he remains the only Penn State Heisman winner.

“I tell him, ‘You’ve still got only one Heisman winner, you’re stuck with me on that,’ ” Cappelletti said. “He can’t wait to get another one.”

NEXT TIME, TAKE THE PULLMAN

It took Washington State 103 years to lure a Big Ten school to Pullman for a football game.

It could be another 103 before one goes back.

Consider Illinois’ weekend trip:

* The Illini’s charter out of Decatur, Ill., was delayed three hours because the flight crew en route from Newark was halfway to Decatur, Ga., before realizing a serious mistake in direction.

* Twenty miles outside Moscow, Idaho, the bus carrying the Illinois defense to the motel broke down, leaving the players stranded in 90-degree heat.

Players killed time by looking for rattlesnakes.

* Illinois lost the game, 20-13, extending the school’s losing streak to 18 games.

ROCKY RICKY

Hard to believe after Colorado’s 10-2 seasons in 1995 and ‘96, but a lot of people in the Rockies viewed the Buffaloes’ victory over Colorado State last Saturday night as potentially career saving for Coach Rick Neuheisel.

Neuheisel’s “boy wonder” tag went on hiatus after last year’s national title run ended in 5-6 ruins.

Worse than that, Ralphie III, the team’s live buffalo mascot, died in January, and Colorado was stripped of its five victories for using an ineligible player.

But with Ralphie IV in tow last Saturday at Mile High Stadium, Colorado defeated Colorado State an eighth consecutive time.

With upcoming games against Fresno State, Utah State, Baylor and Oklahoma, Colorado should be 5-0 when Kansas State comes to Boulder on Oct. 10.

Still, Neuheisel is cautious about overstating his team’s return to national prominence.

“Even though there were some moments of redemption, you get to win a game and get that lousy feeling out of our system, we’ve got a lot of work to do and our kids need to know that,” Neuheisel said. “We’re not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination.”

TWO-MINUTE DRILL

* A week after Louisiana Tech amassed 590 passing yards on Nebraska, Alabama Birmingham surprised the Cornhuskers by running the wishbone in last weekend’s 31-point loss in Lincoln.

“I feel like we’ve kind of seen it all,” Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said.

* This week’s Sagarin ratings for Kansas State’s nonconference opponents: Indiana State (154), Northern Illinois (138), Northeast Louisiana (94).

* Party space was so tight for last week’s Louisville-Kentucky game at the new Papa John’s Cardinals Stadium in Louisville that O.D. White and Sons Funeral Home made its parking lot available for before-game tailgating.

Given Kentucky won the game, 68-34, would it have not served as a better postgame venue?

* Quote of the week: Arizona State receiver Courtney Jackson, telling the Arizona Daily Star after his team’s heartbreaking 42-38 defeat to Washington, “This is Arizona, so the sun will come up.”

* Anyone remember Washington State’s Rose Bowl run last year? The unbelievable demand for tickets? All those Ryan Leaf-lets? Well, it’s business as usual these days in fair-weather Pullman. Saturday’s game against Illinois at Martin Stadium, capacity 37,600, drew 31,568.

Safe to say the bloom is off the Rose.