Virginia Tech Gets Just Reward

Maybe Virginia Tech really believed if it played a calorie-free schedule and won all its games it would be ordained a spot in this year’s national title game.

Maybe Virginia Tech thought it could not possibly drop out, if only temporarily, of the Sugar Bowl race after a victory.

Maybe the Hokie conspiracy theorists are right: that the bowl championship series rankings, produced and released weekly by the Southeastern Conference, are being manipulated to produce an all-SEC Sugar Bowl matchup between Tennessee and Florida.

Maybe the BCS is an operational arm of the International Boxing Federation. Hmmmm.

Interesting, if not far-fetched, although it is true the BCS refuses to reveal how it calculates its strength-of-schedule component.

Or, maybe, Virginia Tech is getting exactly what it deserves.

“When you’ve got as many computers hooked into this thing as we’ve got, and ratings and rankings, we’ve just got to get it right,” Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer said this week. “It’s got to be the two best football teams.”

Who says the BCS doesn’t have it right?

This week’s BCS rankings produced protestations in Blacksburg, Va., where the 8-0 Hokies were overtaken by 7-1 Tennessee for the all-important No. 2 spot.

Only the top two teams in the final Dec. 5 rankings play in the Sugar Bowl for the BCS national title, and this week those two teams would be Florida State and Tennessee in a rematch of last year’s Fiesta Bowl.

With No. 2 Penn State losing Saturday to Minnesota, No. 3 Virginia Tech expected to seize the BCS’s second spot based on the shaky merits of its last-second win against West Virginia.

Instead, Tennessee, a 38-14 winner over Notre Dame, jumped over Florida and Virginia Tech into second place . . . for now.

What happened to Virginia Tech was this: The real world caught up with the Hokies and, thank goodness, the BCS computer was there to record it.

The Hokies, darlings of the BCS computer when they were blowing out feeble opponents--seven of the eight computers factor margin of victory--discovered what happens when you win a two-point squeaker over mediocre West Virginia.

Virginia Tech lost a whopping 1.14 points in the BCS computer index this week, and saw its strength-of-schedule rating jump from 2.32 to 2.40.

Facts are stubborn things. Even Kenneth Massey’s poll, one of the eight used by the BCS, dropped Virginia Tech from first to second this week. And Massey is a Virginia Tech graduate!

Tennessee moved up by beating 5-3 Notre Dame by 24 points. These days, it’s important to play the Irish only because of their national schedule strength, which provided the Volunteers a nice computer boost.

Tennessee shaved its BCS computer rating from 5.43 last week to 2.71, lowering its strength-of-schedule rating from .60 last week to .36.

Bottom line: Virginia Tech and its fans need to pipe down and play ball. The Hokies trail Tennessee by only .33 for the all-important second BCS spot.

A win over Miami in Blacksburg this weekend might just propel the Hokies back to No. 2.

“I’ve talked to Virginia Tech people,” Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese said this week. “I said to them, ‘If you sit here and worry about this whole mechanism, it’s not going to do you any good. You’ve just got to go play and win. At the end of the day, if you’re 11-0, let the chips fall where they may.’ ”

It was Tranghese who has also strongly urged his conference schools to upgrade their nonconference schedules.

Virginia Tech is getting hurt for playing James Madison, a Division I-AA school.

“I’ve just pointed out to everybody what it means to play I-AA,” Tranghese said.

In the Hokies’ case, it could mean a national title.

BIG EAST CONNECTION

Virginia Tech fears a repeat of the West Virginia scenario from 1993, when the Mountaineers were unbeaten but did not get a chance to play for the national title.

That year, pre-BCS, the pollsters shunned West Virginia in favor of a Florida State-Nebraska title game.

“It was hard for me to believe we shouldn’t have a chance to play for the national championship, that’s for sure,” West Virginia Coach Don Nehlen said this week.

Actually, Don, the pundits had it right.

West Virginia went to the Sugar Bowl and got hammered by Florida, 41-7.

“Naturally, I’m from the Big East, I’m for Virginia Tech,” Nehlen said. “If they run the board, I certainly think they should have the opportunity.”

TITLE TALK

We here at Mayhem Central always root for worst-case BCS scenarios, and there are none more delicious at the moment than the possibility of two one-loss teams playing for the national title while two undefeated schools get left out.

Here’s how easily that can happen: If Florida, No. 4 this week in the BCS, defeats No. 1 Florida State on Nov. 20 and another top 10 opponent in the Dec. 4 SEC title game, the Gators might easily vault into the No. 1 BCS spot.

Should Tennessee hold onto the second spot, the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl would pit the Gators against the Volunteers, two one-loss schools from BCS creator Roy Kramer’s conference.

Bring on those conspiracy theories.

That scenario could leave 11-0 Virginia Tech and 11-0 Kansas State howling, respectively, from the hills and the plains.

It would also, interestingly, produce three national title claims in three ABC-sponsored bowl games.

To maximize ratings and interest, the power brokers probably would not allow Virginia Tech and Kansas State to square off in Title Game Jr. Instead, Kansas State probably would go to the Fiesta Bowl, perhaps to play Wisconsin, with Virginia Tech and Florida State meeting in the Orange Bowl.

The result could be tumultuous. If Virginia Tech and Kansas State both win, it would leave the victors of three bowls crowing for the national title, all against the backdrop of SEC Commissioner Kramer handing the BCS trophy to an SEC school in the Sugar Bowl.

Wouldn’t that be terrific?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

They could call it the “Comeback Bowl.” Oregon State’s 17-7 win over California last week has likely landed the Beavers a spot in the Dec. 25 Oahu Bowl against 6-3 Hawaii, provided the Rainbow Warriors win one of their last three games against Fresno State, Navy or Washington State.

Oregon State hasn’t been gone for the holidays since the 1965 Rose Bowl, while Hawaii entered the season with an 18-game losing streak and was dubbed the 109th worst team among 114 Division I schools by the experts at Sports Illustrated.

“It was unbelievable,” Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson said of Saturday’s victory. “You’d have to have been here to have the feeling that went on after that football game, and during the game, in the stands.”

The only complaint here has been the shabby reporting. Writers far and wide (you wide ones know who you are) continue to write that Oregon State has clinched its first winning season since 1970.

OK, let’s do the math. The Beavers are 6-3. If they lose their last two games to Oregon and Arizona, and then lose in a bowl, wouldn’t that make them 6-6?

DAYNE DEAL

They can close campaign headquarters in Madison, Wis., the Heisman race is over. Wisconsin whale back Ron Dayne has been declared the winner in all key precincts, thus ending one of the great damage control rescue efforts on record.

Dayne may be the first guy to have to explain his way to the Heisman Trophy. Dayne’s negative national perception had reached a point this year that his handlers felt it necessary to include a link on his Web site titled “What’s Myth and What’s Fact.”

Myth: Ron Dayne hasn’t gained yardage vs. quality opposition.

Myth: Ron Dayne has had a disappointing 1999 season.

Myth: Ron Dayne weighs too much to play tailback.

What we said all along was that Dayne would and should win the award if he broke Ricky Williams’ career rushing mark, and Dayne needs 99 yards against Iowa on Saturday to eclipse Williams’ freshly minted record of 6,279 yards at Texas.

While Dayne managed only 88 rushing yards in an early-season loss to Michigan (fact or myth?), he has acquitted himself nicely by compiling 597 yards against Michigan State, Purdue and Ohio State.

Wisconsin folks grumble privately that Dayne has not been accorded the same respect Williams received last year en route to breaking Tony Dorsett’s 22-year-old rushing record, but even Badger Coach Barry Alvarez understands how that works.

“It’s like hitting 70 home runs and coming back and hitting 68 the next year,” he said. “It’s kind of like a ho-hum deal.”

So, enough already.

Hand Dayne the Heisman.

Ho-hum.

NITTANY PICKING

Who’s going to break the news to Penn State Coach Joe Paterno that his 9-1 Nittany Lions are out of the national title race?

“I don’t even know where we’re ranked this week,” Paterno said. “That’s not a cop-out, honest to goodness.”

FYI, Joe, you fell from No. 2 to No. 7 in the BCS.