14 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 19, 2001
NFL to play a full 16 games
*I&
NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL
will play a full 16-game schedule this
season, making up last week's missed
games in the first week of January.
And while it may still reduce the
number of playoff teams from 12 to
eight, commissioner Paul Tagliabue
said yesterday that full playoffs are
still a possibility.
Tagliabue said the league's compe-
tition committee had voted unani-
mously to keep the 16-game format,
switching the games called off last
weekend to the weekend of Jan. 5-7,
when wild-card games had been
scheduled.
But he said the committee is still
looking at ways to keep the normal
complement of 12 playoff teams
rather than eight. That would mean
three division winners and three wild-
card teams in each conference would
make the playoffs rather than the
three winners and just one wild card.
"This would be the best of both
worlds. If they can keep the 16-game
schedule and the six wild cards, then
everybody's happy. It's just back to
business," said coach Mike Sherman
of Green Bay, one of many teams
whose playoff chances would be hurt
badly if the NFL cut back on wild
cards.
"I'll be curious to see what follows
after this," added Andy Reid of
Philadelphia, another team that might
be affected. "I'd hate to disrupt the
playoffs in that situation.... I'm sure
they'll come up with an answer for it.
They understand the importance of
the playoffs."
When the teams return, they are
likely to have the regular officials
back.
NFL sources, speaking on condi-
tion of anonymity, said the executive
committee of the NFL Referees Asso-
ciation was voting by e-mail on a pro-
posal by the league that would end the
lockout that lasted through the final
game of preseason and the first game
of the regular season. If it is approved
by noon EDT Wednesday, the regular
officials will be back for Sunday's
games.
As for the playoffs, Tagliabue said:
"We continue to work on keeping
six division winners, six wild cards
and our entire postseason format
intact. Several options have been pre-
sented to us in recent days that would
help us accomplish that. If we cannot
resolve our entire postseason lineup in
a satisfactory fashion, we then will go
to ,a system of six division winners
and two wild-card teams for this one
season only."
One option would be to move the
Super Bowl, to be played in New
Orleans, from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3. There
is only a one-week break this year
after the championship games.
One way to do that would be to
switch the Super Bowl and the
National Auto Dealers Convention,
scheduled for the next week. The Pro
Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 4, would
either be moved back a week or
played as scheduled without players
from Super Bowl teams.
Another option would be to sched-
ule most of the potential play'off
teams for Saturday, Jan. 5, then play
the wild-card games on Wednesday
Jan. 9. The next round would be
played Jan. 13-14 with the champi-
onship games as scheduled on Jan. 20
- most likely with four exhausted
teams.
A third would be to play the title
games on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan.
27, as a doubleheader at the Super-
dome. The Super Bowl would be
played the next week at another site
with New Orleans promised another
game in the future.
WEBB
Continued from Page :12
All-American Mark Pilja.
While in high school, Webb won
the Great American Festival two
years in a row. Warhurst was con-
tacted to have his team run in the
race due to Webb's ties with the
area.
"Alan Webb is kind of a folk hero
here, like he is a lot of other places,"
Warhurst said.
Although the spotlight may be on
Webb this weekend, Michigan's
team consists of numerous talented
runners including two senior All-
Americans, Pilja and Mike Wis-
niewski, as well as another talented
freshman in Nathan Brannen.
"We've got about 12 to 14 really
solid funners so I'm going to red-
shirt some kids," Warhurst said.
Michigan is ranked 19th in the
nation heading into the regular sea-
son.
This weekend, its main competi-
tion will be No.10 North Carolina
State. Other schools participating in
the race include Furman, Brigham
Young, and Georgia.
"Certainly Michigan will be one
of the favorites along with North
Carolina State, Duke, Yale, and
North Carolina-Chapel Hill," meet
director Rick Hill said.
With the recent tragedy that
struck the nation this past week,
Warhurst is giving the option for
any runner to sit this weekend out.
Yet, the team proceeded with all
practices last week in order to help
the runners emotionally and mental-
ly and to feel the security that team-
mates can bring to each other.
Refs vote
After making the difficult decision to cancel last week's games, NFL Commissioner Paul
Tagliabue made another decision to have a full 16-game schedule.
to end the
lockout
4
NEW YORK (AP) - NFL refer-
ees began voting by e-mail yester-
day on a plan that could end a
lockout and have them back on the
field when play resumes Sunday,
two league sources said.
A source familiar with the labor
dispute, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the 10-member "
executive board of the NFL Refer-
ees Association had agreed on the
vote during a conference call yester-
day morning. The league set a dead-
line of noon EDT today for the
result.
Tom Condon, the lead negotiator
for the officials, said he believed a
deal was close. But he said he had
made no final deal. Asked about the
e-mail vote he replied: "I don't have
any plan to send them to vote on."
"They might have jumped the
gun," he said of the NFL.
But the sources said the vote was
already under way.
If approved, the deal would end a
lockout that covered the last week of
the preseason and the first week of
regular games. Those games were
worked by replacements.
Both sides acknowledged the
move toward an agreement was pre-
cipitated by the terrorist attacks in
New York and Washington that
caused commissioner Paul Tagli-
abue to call off last week's games.
A union source, also speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the ref-
erees took that into consideration
when they went back to bargaining.
A basic package was put in place
Sunday night in Pittsburgh, the
sources said.
Accident
Survivor
charged
4
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - The lone
survivor of a wreck that killed eight
Wyoming runners was charged yester-
day with vehicular homicide and
being drunk at the time of the crash.
Clinton Haskins, a member of the
university's rodeo team, was charged M
with eight counts of aggravated homi-
cide by vehicle. The complaint also
charged Haskins was drunk but pro-
vided no specifics.
The Albany County Attorney's
Office and police refused to comment.
Haskins faces up to 20 years in
prison on each count if convicted.
Bond was set at $100,000. The aggra-
vated nature of the charges is based on
Haskins' alleged intoxication.