Status Quo Working for Hurricanes

It wasn’t long after Miami’s 37-14 national-title victory over Nebraska in Thursday’s Rose Bowl that Hurricane quarterback Ken Dorsey ended speculation, announcing he would return for his senior season next fall.

Not to be outdone, Miami Coach Larry Coker also wanted to make something perfectly clear.

“I’m definitely coming back next year,” he joked.

So too, is the bowl championship series.

Hey, two out of three isn’t bad, huh?

Despite the controversy that hounded the title-game selection process, the BCS standings will no doubt return in 2002, with some alterations.

Since being implemented in 1998, the BCS has actually produced an undisputed champion all four seasons: Tennessee, Florida State, Oklahoma and Miami.

Not that there haven’t been close calls. A season ago, Miami missed out of the BCS title game by 0.32 in the standings and ended up in the Sugar Bowl, where it defeated Florida. Had Florida State beaten Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, Miami would probably have won the Associated Press title.

Same story this time. Had Nebraska defeated Miami, Oregon would probably have won the AP crown and left college football with split champions.

Yet, the BCS dodged bullets both years when Oklahoma and Miami won the BCS title game outright.

The only controversy this year is over Oregon, which finished second in both polls but fourth in the BCS standings. Oregon, a 38-16 winner over Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl, believes it should have played Miami in the Rose Bowl.

“We knew something like this could happen,” BCS coordinator John Swofford told a gathering of writers before the Rose Bowl.

In 2000, after Florida State edged out Miami for the second BCS spot, even though Miami had beaten Florida State on the field, the BCS changed its system, awarding points for head-to-head wins and diminishing the margin-of-victory component.

It was the quality-win component that nearly allowed two-loss Colorado to overtake one-loss Nebraska for the BCS’ No. 2 spot this year.

This off-season, look for the six BCS commissioners to plug another loophole. The big complaint about Nebraska’s making the Rose Bowl was that the Cornhuskers had not even won the championship in their own conference, the Big 12.

The BCS bosses will probably make sure that never happens again by ruling that only conference champions, or qualified independent schools, are eligible to play for the national title.

“We have an obligation to evaluate,” Swofford said of the system.

The BCS, like it or not, figures to remain in place through the 2005 season. Under the current contract with ABC, the four major bowls each get another crack at the title game. The Fiesta Bowl will host next year’s game, followed by the Sugar, Orange and Rose.