Columnist Steve Guiremand: If you dislike the BCS, root hard for LSU

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears on Friday during football season. Reach him at 259-2324 or steveg@lasvegassun.com.

Go Bayou Bengals!

If you're as sick as I am about the operation of the Roy Kramer Invitational, a k a the Bowl Championship Series, you'll be rooting for LSU (8-3) to win the SEC title game against No. 2 Tennessee on Saturday night. That would throw the BS -- er, BCS -- into real chaos, which it deserves.

No matter who gets invited to play Miami in the Rose Bowl in that case -- a Nebraska team that got whacked 62-36 in its last game, a red-hot Colorado squad that has two losses (including one at home to Fresno State) or an Oregon squad that had to scramble to beat mediocre teams such as USC, UCLA and Oregon State, and lost at home to Stanford -- there is going to be a lot of grumbling.

There should be. The system, which denied the Hurricanes a spot in last year's national title game despite the fact they defeated Florida State head-to-head, is broke. And hopefully, somebody will figure out a way to fix it.

A playoff, you say? Hey that makes a lot of sense. The NCAA does it in every other sport. Why not Division I football?

Well, then you would have to invite unbeaten BYU to the party as well as teams such as Louisville and Louisiana Tech.

And you would have to share all those millions that conferences such as Kramer's SEC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-10, the ACC and the Big East get to hoard right now from their BCS games with conferences such as the Mountain West, the WAC, Conference USA and the MAC.

You would think the coaches would like to settle their championship on the field and not by some flawed formula. But most coaches are against a playoff. Why?

Well, a playoff would have just one happy team and coach at the end. Now there are 25 who go home happy after their bowl game. And there's nothing like a bowl win, even a Silicon Valley Classic win, to keep the alumni happy for another year.

Coaches also say a playoff would cause havoc with academics (I didn't know schools hold class over Christmas vacation) and would be too stressful for their kids. Evidently, football players can't handle the stress as well as their basketball counterparts, who somehow manage to cope with March Madness during the middle of their spring semesters.

Of course, this week's coaches' poll actually ranks Nebraska ahead of Colorado, a team that embarrassed the Cornhuskers by 26 points two weeks ago in Boulder and followed that with another upset of Texas.

Actually, we can't entirely blame the coaches for that gaffe in that it's usually their sports information directors who do the dirty work and vote in their place.

If LSU does win this week, don't be surprised if a few of these coaches get off the golf course long enough to actually fill out the ballot themselves this week, to make sure the Buffs move up a notch in their poll and get the Rose Bowl invite over the Cornhuskers.

If not, get ready for that Miami-Nebraska national championship game and a whole lot of red faces at the BCS. Heck, a Colorado-Oregon matchup in the Fiesta Bowl could end up being the real national title game.

In the end, will the folks at the BCS really care? Not really. And I can think of million$ of rea$on$ why.

Rich get richer?

Starting with the crazy game-saving deflected goal line interception at Boston College and continuing with last week's dropped 2-point conversion by Virgina Tech that would have likely forced overtime in Blacksburg, this has been Miami's year when it comes to getting the big breaks.

Another one for the 11-0 Hurricanes could be the fact the national championship game this year is being played on Jan. 3 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Although Miami gets the majority of its talent from the gold mine of prep football, the state of Florida, the Hurricanes have expanded their horizons to Southern California where they are in position to make a run at three of the bluest blue-chippers on the West Coast.

Long Beach (Calif.) Poly defensive tackle Manual Wright (6-6, 305), perhaps the top defensive line prospect in the nation, safety Darnell Bing (6-1, 220) and running back Herschel Dennis (5-11, 185), who might be the best running back on the West Coast, are showing strong interest in Miami.

Wright reportedly is very interested in both Miami and its in-state rival Florida, both of which have strong reputations for producing NFL defensive linemen. The two Florida schools also are among the finalists for Bing, a hard-hitting safety in the Mark Carrier mold, and Dennis, who has starred for three years against some of the top prep competition in the nation.

It certainly won't hurt Miami's chances spending more than a week practicing in downtown Los Angeles, just a 15-minute drive from Poly's campus. In fact, the Hurricanes' toughest competition for the trio could likely come from USC, where they could end up holding their Rose Bowl practices.

If Miami doesn't work out there, it will be across the street on the Trojans' home field, the Los Angeles Coliseum.

For new USC coach Pete Carroll, persuading players like Wright, Bing and Dennis to stay close to home will be key in turning around the Trojans' fortunes.

Notes, quotes, anecdotes

Would it have killed the Heisman folks to fly in a couple of extra players, such as Carr and Antwaan Randle El of Indiana, so they could take a few well deserved bows?