Elite Eight of Football Would Be Much Better

The high points, low points and ticklish talking points of the weekend that was:

So maybe the bowl championship series is workable and watchable--engrossing even, when the teams are as evenly matched and error-stricken as Michigan vs. Alabama or as tough as Wisconsin vs. Stanford.

But if anything was clear from college football’s 14-hour New Year’s Daze bowl-o-rama, it’s that a quick-hitting, eight-team playoff system, including the four big bowls, would be better and not at all difficult to pull off.

As dramatic as Saturday was, as wild as the celebrations got, how much bigger and more memorable would it be if the Michigan-Alabama overtime battle was for a football Final Four berth, a version of Duke-Kentucky in another sport?

Or if one of the survivors had to figure out how to tackle Ron Dayne?

Or if Tennessee vs. Nebraska produced a wild, wild-card team?

Or if, after this flat, five-week wait, we got to see Peter Warrick try to put together three consecutive Heisman-like performances, or if Virginia Tech can knock off three powers in a row?

The NCAA basketball tournament does it, every season, because each game is drenched with passion, fear and overwhelming meaning.

As it was, the New Year’s Day bowls made the most of it, and hinted at what could have been. The best:

* Georgia quarterback Quincy Carter throwing lasers to lead his team back from a 25-0 deficit against Purdue to a 28-25 overtime victory in the Outback Bowl.

* Wisconsin’s Dayne, maybe not the top NFL prospect (I’ll take Alabama’s Shaun Alexander), but surely the most dependable, rumbling runner we’ve seen in several decades.

* Michigan State’s Plaxico Burress and Michigan’s David Terrell tumbling and sprinting over and through pass defenders in two nerve-rattling Big Ten victories.

The worst:

* Georgia Tech’s Joe Hamilton, who, like Louisville’s Chris Redman before him, did not exactly guarantee No. 1 draft-pick dollars in a shaky performance against the Miami Hurricanes.

* Virginia Tech linebacker Corey Moore, doing a wicked impression of Lawrence Taylor, only in front of the tape recorders and not (yet) on the field; and Florida State kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who should know that kickers aren’t supposed to imitate Jim McMahon on Bourbon Street.

THE BIG PICTURE

Five more names. One more list. You’ve seen the ESPN series, read The Times’ poll, raised your fist in anger, and debated the comparable merits of Ali, Ruth, Bannister, Brown and Unitas.

These are added late, but on purpose. These are the five influential sports figures I’d argue that have been the most overlooked in the century-closing rush:

1. George Foreman: He finished off Frazier, set loose the Ali legend, reemerged, smiling, and regained the title 17 years after his first retirement. Try to duplicate that in any century.

2. Author Bill James: Baseball officials don’t acknowledge it, but his books revolutionized the way we look at the game, from on-base percentages to stadium effects to minor league development.

3. Buddy Ryan, Bill Walsh: The NFL is still basically playing by these guys’ 1980s designs. Ryan’s “46” defense and Walsh’s “West Coast” offense moved the game toward full-tilt aggression on defense and short passes on offense.

4. Pete Maravich: The apex of basketball as performance art.

5. Al Davis: Everything that’s neurotic and obsessive and consuming about sports in the last three decades? That’s his life story.

WEEKEND TALKING POINTS

1. Bill Parcells: He’s profiled on “60 Minutes,” and that’s about how long his Patriot replacement, Pete Carroll, has left. Think those AFC playoff teams are glad they won’t have to play Parcells?

2. Seattle and Miami, in the postseason through the back door: Well, you can win for losing. Jets swept them both, but Seahawks and Dolphins get loser-bowl first-round matchup.

3. Oakland 41, Kansas City 38: Raiders knock Chiefs out of playoffs after spending most of season knocking themselves out.

4. Rams’ MVP candidate Marshall Faulk: Former San Diego State great made rest of NFL look like Fresno State.

5. Kurt Warner, Steve Beuerlein: They threw a combined 70 touchdown passes, or about 40 more than Dan Marino and Drew Bledsoe combined.

6. UCLA’s Jason Kapono: Freshman shows he’s the next great Bruin playmaker, which is terrific timing, since UCLA hasn’t run a play since 1996.

7. Maurice Taylor vs. Michael Olowokandi: Trouble in the Clipper kingdom might ruin playoff chemistry. The biggest shock is that somebody actually cares.

8. Dennis Rodman rumors: How bad does he want to get back into the league? He swears this time he’ll play at least 10 games before freaking out.

9. Tiger Woods, final-round 76 in Williams World Challenge: His game’s so screwed up, he might only win 12 tournaments in 2000.

10. Several Florida State starters miss curfew: They’re all eligible for Sugar Bowl, and to play for Cowboys in playoffs.

LEADING QUESTIONS

Who, if any, among the sports figures we know, might be remembered most and fondest in 2099, when TV producers, editors and columnists again feel the need to compile long lists?

Can we concede that Tiger Woods and Ken Griffey Jr. could make indelible marks even before the first decade is up? Shouldn’t we add Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Lamar Odom from the NBA?

Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James, Warren Sapp and Jevon Kearse from the NFL? And Landon Donovan and Meadow Soprano as up-and-coming U.S. soccer players? Serena Williams as the biggest tennis star?

How about Master P as the potential sports entrepreneur of the new age? Or some mysterious millionaire named Michael Jordan?