The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday September 9, 1996 - 7B
Sporting Views:
Play the best to be the best; weak schedules ruin football
By John Friedberg
Daily Sports Writer
An old saying in sports goes some-
*ing like this: "To be the best, you
have to beat the best." Whoever
coined that phrase must not have
been referring to college football.
Glancing over the scores from this
weekend's college football weekend,
fans see a disturbing trend. National
Championship contenders Florida,
Ohio State, Miami (Fla), Notre
Dame and Texas all dominated teams
that will only be recovering from
w Year's Eve parties on the biggest
bowl day of the year.
The Gators dominated Georgia
Southern after putting a hurt on the
Ragin' Cajuns of Southwest
Louisiana last week, proving their
dominance of directional schools.
The formidable Buckeyes scored
10 times as many points as Rice. The
only bowl Rice will attend will be
somewhere during harvest season.
o tre Dame flexed its muscles and
edged out a Vanderbilt team that may
win three games this season.
The past few seasons have seen the
disappearance of the games that
made college football one of the
most popular sports in the country.
The late '80s and early '90s featured
great games between Miami and
Notre Dame, Florida State, and
Notre Dame, Colorado and
Washington, and Michigan and
Notre Dame. Such games went a
long way toward determining the
national champion.
The last time a national champion
played a schedule that was the tough-
est in the country was in 1990. That
year, Colorado won its share of the
title after its schedule featured four
non-conference games against oppo-
nents who played on New Year's Day.
The Buffaloes took on the Sugar
Bowl champions (Tennessee), the
Rose Bowl champions (Washington),
the Southwestern Conference
champs (Texas, who lost in the
Cotton Bowl) and a participant in the
Hall of Fame Bowl (Illinois).
This schedule became tougher
with the addition of games against
Nebraska and Oklahoma who also
were highly ranked throughout the
season.
Lately, notably the last three sea-
sons, teams making a run at the
national championship have taken an
easier route to glory.
Nebraska, the best team in college
football the past three seasons, has
played a non-conference slate featur-
ing only three teams that have made
bowl games.
Teams such as Pacific (which has
since dropped its football program),
Wyoming, North Texas and Utah
State. have all been embarrassed by
the Big Red Machine.
This season, the Huskers will play
one team expected to challenge for
its conference crown, No. 20 Arizona
State No wonder the Huskers have
not dropped a game the past three
regular seasons.
Penn State, Kansas State, Auburn
and even Notre Dame have all fol-
lowed this trend lately. The Penn
State schedule, which had featured
Notre Dame in the early '90s, has
played in-state rival Temple as well
as perennial power Louisville.
Next week the Nittany Lions chal-
lenge the mighty Huskies of
Northern Illinois. I'm sure Penn
State coach Joe Paterno will find
some way to build up this week's
opponent and explain that this is not
an easy game.
Kansas State used to be a team that
everyone wanted for their homecom-
ing games. The "Mildcats" of the late
'80s were described as one of the
worst football programs in the coun-
try by Sports Illustrated.
While the Wildcats deserve com-
mendation for turning their program
around, they have yet to beat a top 10
team. The Wildcats proved to be a
big challenge for Larry Bird's alma
mater Saturday. Indiana State did not
get on the scoreboard until very late
in the fourth quarter.
Rice and UNLV have contributed
to good finishes for the Wildcats
during the past few years. Kansas
State finished in the top 10 last year,
but only posted a record of 1-2
against the other teams ranked in the
top 25.
Auburn has returned as one of the
top teams after a couple of years on
probation. In its undefeated 1993
season, Auburn conquered Division
I-AA Samford. The Tigers followed
that up in 1994 with Northeast
Louisiana and East Tennessee Sate.
This year, the Tigers ought to be
proud of their defense. The Tigers
have not allowed a point this season.
Unfortunately, the Tigers have yet to
prove themselves against top teams,
as the routs have come against
Fresno St and Alabama-Birmingham.
Last year, Notre Dame replaced
Michigan with Northwestern -
Northwestern did turn out to be a
good team - and found a way to
play all three service academies.
Rumor has it that Notre Dame has
contacted the Coast Guard and the
Marines to set up new rivalries, but
its calls have yet to be returned.
All of these uneven games bring
up another question: Why would a
team like Georgia Southern want to
challenge the mighty Florida Gators?
The answer is simple - money.
Visiting teams often take home a
good share of ticket receipts, so from
a financial point of view the games
make sense.
Why would Georgia Southern
want to visit rival Furman where
there are only 16,000 seats, when
they can go to Gainesville and take
in cash from 83,000 customers? This
trend has spread to conference
games, as both the Wake Forest-
Florida State game and the Maryland-
Florida State games have beent
moved to "neutral" sites in Florida.
Until the poll system is trashed
and a tournament similar to that is
established , with seeds based on
strength of schedule, football fans
will have to endure boring weekends
such as this one.
T Top opponents only help 'M' spikers
By Kevin Kasiborski
Daily Sports Writer
Normally a trip to Hawaii would
include nothing but fun and sun.
However, the Michigan women's vol-
leyball team's trip there was not a
vacation.
The Wolverines played and lost to
No. 1 Hawaii, No. 6 UCLA and No. 25
Louisville. When the Wolverines
returned home, their schedule wasn't
any easier, losing to No. 9 Florida in
their home opener at the Volleyball
Challenge.
The purpose of the tough non-con-
ference schedule is to prepare for the
difficult Big Ten matches later in the
year. So even though the losses hurt,
there is no reason for the Wolverines to
panic.
"I'd have to say we're still a pretty
good 0-4 team," Michigan coach Greg
Giovanazzi said Friday. "A lot of
things are going real well. I see a lot
of good things on our side of the
match."
Michigan's schedule Saturday gave
it a little break as it finally faced an
unranked team, Georgia. The
Wolverines took advantage with a 3-0
win.
"I thought in serve receive we were
very good, which was a concern we
expressed last night," Giovanazzi said.
"We should be a good side out team,
we have good setting, good passing
and good hitting.
Giovanazzi added that he thought
his team's strong performance
Saturday was only partly due to lesser
competition.
"Our side out game would have been
good against anybody, and that's what
has been missing a little. bit,"
Giovanazzi said. "However, I think
that they gave us some points out
there, too. I think that always fuels
things a little bit, gives you a little bit
of momentum, and then you carry it
from there."
And of course it is always easier to
take advantage of momentum when
playing at home.
"I really believe that we have the
best arena in the country for volley-
ball," Giovanazzi said. "Nineteen-hun-
dred people, and even with a thousand
there it seems like a really good crowd.
Hopefully its infectious and gets peo-
ple to come back."
One area that Giovanazzi had been
concerned about entering the weekend
was the attack. Against Georgia, the
Wolverines recorded a season-best
.329 hitting percentage.
"We have really strong attackers,
and maybe the level of the people that
we have been playing has made them
look like they are not as sharp as we
think they are," Giovanazzi said. "I
think Karen (Chase) is a good exam-
ple, she is a very strong outside attack-
er, she has a great arm swing.
"And when we have to rely just on
Karen, its just too big a load. If we can
spread the offense out and then give
balls to Karen, then all of sudden her
numbers will go up, like I'm sure they
did tonight."
Michigan junior Linnea Mendoza
says with each tough match, valuable
experience is gained.
"It has gotten easier for me every
year to go out there and play against
these teams because of experience,"
Mendoza said. "Sarah Jackson and the
sophomores have improved so much,
and when you have good talent and
experience, it is a good match.
"Next year were going to be even
better," she added. "We had only one
senior out there most of the night."
That senior, Shareen Luze, joined
Mendoza as the Wolverine representa-
tives on the all-tournament team. They
were joined by Lital Sisso of Georgia,
Paula Prentice and Mary Coleman of
Illinois and Jenny Wood of Florida.
The Gator's setter, Nikki Shade, was
named the tournament's most valuable
player.
Michigan's schedule is a little gen-
tIer the next two weeks. The
Wolverines travel to Toledo tomorrow,
then to the Spikeoff Spokane
Tournament next weekend. There, the
Wolverines will face Gonzaga, George
Mason and Wyoming.
The Wolverines return home to Cliff
Keen Arena September 20 to face
Notre Dame.
t
MARK FtRuMAN/uaily
Sophomore outside hitter Jeanine Szczesniak and the rest of the Wolverines
haven't had much chance to celebrate this season with a grueling non-conference
chedule that included four top 25 teams already.
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