Overtime Gives College Football New Look Questions Need Answers During The 1996 Season

Some questions about college football in 1996:

Q: Can Nebraska win a third straight national title?

A: No team has ever won three national titles since the AP poll began in 1936, but the Cornhuskers have the ingredients to become the first. The biggest question is whether Scott Frost can adequately replace versatile Tommie Frazier, who ran and passed the ‘Huskers to a 25-game winning streak the past two years.

Despite the off-field problems coach Tom Osborne has had to handle, he has all-star players returning at nearly every position, and the Big 12 schedule looks relatively easy for Nebraska.

Q: Any new bowls games?

A: The Haka Bowl, named after a Maori war dance, is set for Dec. 26 (ESPN, 5 p.m. PST) in Auckland, New Zealand. The first non-All-Star game to be played outside the United States since the 1937 Bacardi Bowl in Havana matches the Pac-10’s third-place finisher against an at-large team. Each will be paid $1.5 million.

Q: Is there really overtime?

A: Incredibly, yes. Thirty years after the sport’s most memorable tie - Michigan State 10, Notre Dame 10 in 1966 - major college coaches, athletic directors and presidents finally agreed on a major change.

If the score is tied at the end of regulation, the game clock is turned off, a coin is tossed and the teams begin an overtime period. The ball is placed at the opponent’s 25-yard line and the teams keep playing until the tie is broken after both have had an equal number of possessions.

Q: Who are the new faces in new places?

A: Bob Toledo is replacing Terry Donahue at UCLA, John Blake for Howard Schnellenberger at Oklahoma and Jim Donnan for Ray Goff at Georgia. Donahue was hired by CBS Sports, Goff is living on his farm in Athens, Ga., and Schnellenberger returned to Miami.

And Steve Mariucci, passed over once at California, finally gets his chance, replacing Keith Gilbertson.

Q: Any mismatches this season?

A: How about Notre Dame-Navy? If it isn’t enough that the Irish have a 59-9-1 record against the Middies and haven’t lost to them since 1963, then try this: This year’s game is being played in Dublin, Ireland, on Nov. 2.

There’s also The Citadel, Division I-AA, at Miami. Originally, the Hurricanes were to play Colorado, but when the Big 12 was born the Buffaloes re-tooled their schedule.

Q: Where are the top games this season?

A: Michigan at Colorado (Sept. 14),; Florida at Tennessee (Sept. 21), Notre Dame at Texas (Sept. 21), Ohio State at Notre Dame (Sept. 28), Florida State at Miami (Oct. 12), Navy vs. Notre Dame at Dublin, Ireland (Nov. 2), Michigan at Ohio State (Nov. 23), Southern California at UCLA (Nov. 23), Colorado at Nebraska (Nov. 29) and Florida at Florida State (Nov. 30).

On Dec. 7, don’t miss the Big 12 and SEC title games. The winners just may end up being ranked 1-2 and meeting in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2.

Q: When are the best traditional rivalries played?

A: The biggest day is Nov. 23. There’s Harvard-Yale, Stanford-Cal, USC-UCLA, Washington State-Washington, Michigan-Ohio State, Indiana-Purdue, Arizona-Arizona State, Alabama-Auburn, LSU-Tulane and South Carolina-Clemson.

Others of note: Pitt-West Virginia (Aug. 31); Texas-Oklahoma (Oct. 12); Tennessee-Alabama (Oct. 26); Florida-Georgia (Nov. 2); Texas-Texas A&M (Nov. 29); Georgia-Georgia Tech, Mississippi-Mississippi State, Tennessee-Vanderbilt and Notre Dame-USC (Nov. 30) and Army-Navy (Dec. 7).

Q: Do regular-season games have corporate sponsors?

A: Sure enough. For the second year in a row, the Oklahoma-Texas game is the Dr Pepper Red River Shootout. Dr Pepper guarantees each school $125,000… . And then there’s the Dowdy Aviation Football Classic, Florida State at Wake Forest on Nov. 9. The game has been moved from Winston-Salem, N.C., to Orlando because Dowdy Aviation has promised $900,000 to the teams. … Florida State also has a road game against Maryland on Nov. 23 - in Miami. Sponsors are putting up $900,000 per team for that one, too.

Q: Any coaches on the hot seat?

A: Here’s one opinion: Alabama’s Gene Stallings, Mississippi State’s Jackie Sherrill, Pitt’s Johnny Majors, Indiana’s Bill Mallory, Illinois’ Lou Tepper, SMU’s Tom Rossley, Oregon State’s Jerry Pettibone and Kentucky’s Bill Curry.

Q: Who’s in trouble with the NCAA?

A: Six teams are on NCAA probation: Alabama, Miami, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Washington State. Only Mississippi is banned from postseason games. None are banned from TV. All six had their scholarships reduced, and in all cases but Alabama’s, the schools were cited for lack of institutional control.

Q: Where are the top quarterbacks?

A: Tennesee’s Peyton Manning tops the list, with Florida’s Danny Weurffel right behind. Capable of terrific seasons are USC’s Brad Otton (29 of 44 for 391 yards and 2 TDs in the Rose Bowl), Syracuse’s Donovan McNabb, Arizona State’s Jake Plummer, Penn State’s Wally Richardson and James Brown of Texas. Notre Dame’s Ron Powlus and Colorado’s Koy Detmer, if he’s healthy, could have strong seasons.

Q: What did the CFA do, anyway?

A: The College Football Association, a consortium of 67 Division I-A schools, is in its 20th and final season. At its peak, the CFA was a powerful influence on the legislative and financial fronts. But once it became clear the CFA could no longer deliver big TV bucks, there was no need to keep it going.

The big football schools organized it in 1977 after twice failing to gain more power by restructuring the NCAA. Even though the Big Ten and Pac-10 were convinced by the NCAA not to join, the CFA still managed to force the NCAA to give up its football TV rights to its members.

The CFA took over and a negotiated a five-year, $175 million deal with CBS from 1986-90. The next contract, with ABC and ESPN, doubled. But Notre Dame defected and signed its own deal with NBC. In 1994, the SEC signed its own deal with CBS, and CFA was crumbling.

Q: How about conference changes?

A: The Southwest and Big Eight are gone, replaced by the Big 12 and an expanded Western Athletic. The Big 12 includes the Big Eight teams plus Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor from the SWC.

Rice, SMU and TCU move to the new 16-team WAC, while Houston joined Conference USA. The WAC also added independent Tulsa, UNLV and San Jose State from the Big West.

The Big West dwindles to six teams - Nevada, Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico State, Boise State and North Texas.

Conference USA has Louisville, Cincinnati, Southern Mississippi, Memphis, Houston and Tulane.

The Big Sky gains Sacramento State and Northridge State from the American West Conference and also added Division II Portland State. It lost Boise State and Idaho.

Q: What happened in July with the bowl alliance?

A: Nothing that will affect this season or next. This season, the Sugar Bowl gets the top matchup. Since the Big Ten and Pac-10 are not part of the alliance until the 1998 season, the Sugar is hoping Nos. 1 and 2 come from the ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC and Notre Dame. That takes in 42 of 109 I-A teams.

In July, ABC announced a deal that created a “super alliance” by adding the Pac-10, Big Ten and Rose Bowl to the group. The new alliance begins at the start of the 1998 season.

Q: What’s the bowl lineup look like?

A: Most of the matchups - at-large bids remain for the Haka and Independence bowls - are set:

Las Vegas - MAC 1 vs. Big West 1.

Aloha - Pac-10 4 vs. Big 12 6.

Haka - Pac-10 3 vs. At-large.

Cotton - Big 12 2 vs. Pac-10 2-WAC 1.

Copper - WAC 2 vs. Big 12 5.

Carquest - Big East 3 vs. ACC 4.

Liberty - Conference USA 1 vs. Big East 4.

Peach - ACC 3 vs. SEC 4.

Alamo - Big Ten 4 vs. Big 12 4.

Holiday - WAC 1-Pac-10 2 vs. Big 12 3.

Independence - SEC 5 vs. Atlarge.

Orange - Alliance 4 vs. Alliance 6.

Sun - Pac-10 5 vs. Big Ten 5.

Citrus - Big Ten 2 vs. SEC 2.

Fiesta - Alliance 3 vs. Alliance 5.

Gator - ACC 2 vs. Big East 2.

Outback - SEC 3 vs. Big Ten 3.

Rose - Pac-10 1 vs. Big Ten 1.

Sugar - Alliance 1 vs. Alliance 2.

Q: Why play the Kickoff Classic?

A: At first glance, the reason is money. The minimum payout per team is $675,000. And this year’s matchup between Penn State and Southern California, a 24-7 victory for the Nittany Lions, at 77,716-seat Giants Stadium was a sellout and could even be a Rose Bowl preview.

But with the new bowl alliance in place beginning in 1998, and conferences adding title games after the season, why would any team risk an extra game at the start? One loss, even in the first game, could be the difference between playing for the national title and $6 million or ending up in the Gator Bowl for a whole lot less.

Q: Who are the top defenders?

A: Defensive ends Jared Tomich (Nebraska), Brandon Mitchell (Texas A&M) and Cornell Brown (Virginia Tech), linebackers Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Terrell Farley (Nebraska) and Jarrett Irons (Michigan State) and DBs Chris Cantey (Kansas State), Shawn Springs (Ohio State) and Kevin Jackson (Alabama).