BCS Board Helps Virginia Tech

The bowl championship series will not count Division I-AA playoff games in determining a team’s strength of schedule, which could help No. 2 Virginia Tech and hurt No. 3 Nebraska in the race for the national championship.

BCS coordinator Roy Kramer apparently had failed to consider the effect I-AA playoff games would have on the formula used to determine strength of schedule--one of four components used in compiling the weekly BCS standings.

The revision was made last week by Kramer, also the Southeastern Conference commissioner, and he then informed the commissioners of the five other conferences who are partners in the BCS.

The issue becomes important because Virginia Tech (10-0) earlier in the season defeated I-AA James Madison, which qualified for the playoffs that start Saturday. A postseason loss by James Madison would have counted against the Hokies’ schedule.

The change, made with only three weeks left in the season, gives Virginia Tech an added edge in its points battle with Nebraska to reach the BCS title game and play Florida State in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4.

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Mike O’Cain, whose team opened with a win over Texas but finished 6-6, was fired as North Carolina State’s coach after seven seasons.

Athletic Director Les Robinson said a committee will search for a successor and offer twice the $250,000 package O’Cain received.

O’Cain, 41-40 at North Carolina State, led his first two Wolfpack teams to bowl games. Since then, O’Cain’s teams have appeared in only one bowl game, the Micron PC Bowl in 1998.

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The Big Ten Conference bowl lineup is set.

Wisconsin (9-2), the Big Ten champion, will play Stanford in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, and Michigan (9-2) will play in one of two other BCS games--the Orange or Fiesta bowls.

Michigan State (9-2) is out of a BCS game and in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 against the SEC title-game loser (Florida or Alabama) or Tennessee.

Purdue (7-4) is headed to the Outback Bowl against an SEC team; Penn State (9-3) to the Alamo Bowl against a Big 12 team; No. 13 Minnesota (8-3) to the Sun Bowl against Oregon; and Illinois (7-4) to the Micronpc.com Bowl against an ACC team.

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Tests indicate that Clemson running back Javis Austin’s vision in his left eye is improving after he lost his right eye in what police said was a suicide attempt last week.

Austin has been moved from the intensive care unit to a regular room at the Anderson Area Medical Center at Anderson, S.C.