Looking Ahead, Not Back

The hurricane and the Hurricanes started to drift off UCLA’s radar screen Friday, when the Bruins watched film of Washington State, suddenly the next opponent, and were left to wonder about the implications of not playing today at Miami.

“We probably would have found a silver lining to it,” quarterback Cade McNown said of the cloud of adversity that would have come with the weather. “Even if it was over the Dominican Republic.”

And then there are the future implications, much tougher to track than Hurricane Georges. The potential for weather problems that Thursday prompted the schools to cancel the game at the Orange Bowl also offers the potential, however slight, for a different kind of disaster for the Bruins.

As in, they don’t go to the Rose Bowl because of it.

Or--more of a reach, but also with more at stake--they don’t get a shot at the national championship because of it.

“There’s a possibility,” Coach Bob Toledo conceded of the predicament that has turned an already complicated situation downright algebraic. “But I don’t know. It’s so mind-boggling.”

If the game is not rescheduled--school officials will talk early next week in hopes of making a decision--the cancellation becomes a factor in Pacific 10 play only if the Bruins are part of a three-way tie for the championship. But then it becomes a huge factor: If they have their two nonconference wins, against Texas and Houston, and both of the other teams have three nonconference wins, UCLA is eliminated.

The bowl championship series scenarios are even more complicated. If the Bruins did beat Miami and the Hurricanes finished the season with a good record, it would be a boost for UCLA in the formula that includes strength of schedule. But if Miami finished with a poor record, that could negatively affect the Bruins.