Recent Scholarship Rules Bringing Parity To Gridiron

While Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said his Cornhuskers were “very fortunate” to escape with a win against unranked Missouri on Saturday, other football powers haven’t been so lucky against perennial also-rans this season.

Teams from the once-lightly regarded Mid-American Conference have knocked off the likes of defending Big East champion Virginia Tech, and programs known for losing traditions have shocked football powers.

The upsets and near-upsets this season are a sign that college football’s historical power structure is feeling the effect of a 6-year-old rule change that cut the number of available scholarships, several coaches said. Football factories no longer can stockpile talented players, leaving only the leftovers for less successful college programs.

“You’re seeing the middle of the pack and the bottom of the pack now have better football players than they ever have before because of the numbers game,” said Ohio State coach John Cooper. “It’s a major reason why you’re seeing the parity you’re seeing in college football.”

Under rules passed in 1991, the number of scholarship players a team can have was cut by 10 to 85. In Cooper’s case, 10 players he would like to have on his roster are playing somewhere else - often at smaller programs that don’t have the cachet of a Top-10 school.

“We have kids playing here now that 10 years ago would have been playing in the Big Ten, there’s no doubt about it,” said Randy Walker, coach at Miami University in the Mid-American Conference.

The 7-3 RedHawks are one of three MAC teams receiving Top 25 votes this week.

Armed with some of those Big Ten-caliber players, Walker was able to engineer one of the biggest upsets of the season when his team traveled to Blacksburg, Va., and upset defending Big East champion and then-14th ranked Virginia Tech in October.

Earlier in the year, fellow Mid-American Conference member Ohio University went on the road to defeat the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Maryland 21-14. The Bobcats then came within a field goal of beating Big 12 power Kansas State a week later.

The new scholarship rules also are affecting major conferences. Purdue, which hasn’t finished a season in the rankings since 1980 is 7-2 and ranked 19th. Oklahoma State, also 7-2, is ranked 24th after seven straight losing seasons.