The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 20, 2001- 11A JOE SMITH SEC play highlights return to gridiron Gamecocks go for second-straight road win against ranked team in conference play Eliminating NFL playoff spots would be a mistake early a decade ago, a normal wild card playoff matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers turned into one for the ages. The Bills had dug themselves a nearly inescapable hole. They were down 35-3 at halftime, and needed a miracle to keep their playoff hopes alive against'an explosive Houston team that seemed to score at will on the help- less Bills defense. The Bills also had to depend on the aged arm of veteran backup quarterback Frank Reich to ignite their offense. And that sounded as appealing as relying on a 1989 Dodge Dynasty with 140,000 miles in the tank to survive a cross-coun- try road trip. But, in perhaps the most exciting two quarters of football anyone has ever seen, Reich led the Bills to the greatest comeback in NFL history - a 41-38 win over the Oilers, who were the fifth seed in the AFC play- offs: Buffalo advanced all the way to the Super Bowl before losing to the Dallas Cowboys. It was remarkable when you think about it. Two wild card teams participating in one of the best games in NFL history. But that's what makes wild card games so special, and so intriguing to fans everywhere. Teams that not many would pick to win the Super Bowl before the playoffs begin have a chance to sip from football's Holy Grail - the Vince Lombardi Tro- phy. But if everything goes as expect- ed this season, games like the 1992 Houston-Buffalo thriller will not even have the chance to occur, much less get replayed on "NFL Films" hundreds of times. When NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Tuesday his intention to play a full 16-game schedule, part of that plan involved moving the makeup games from last week's understandable cancellation to Jan. 4th and 5th - which is usual- ly the time for the first round of the wild card playoffs. By taking out those games, the NFL not only has to pay back tele- vision stations $40-60 million for lost playoff games, but the league is also forced to create an eight-team playoff format instead of the regular 12. Only one wild card team from each conference would be able to join the division winners in the playoffs. Four more teams will be cleaning their lockers out early, probably losing hope weeks before the end of the regular season. And that would be a shame. Many of the thyills surrounding professional football are created because several teams have the gleam in their eye of postseason dreams up until the last week. This creates somewhat of an extended playoff format, as teams that are fighting for precious wild card spots kick and scrap until the last possible second. Their mouths water as they notice that wild card teams can, in fact, go all the way. The Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl last year as a wild card team. In fact, three other wild card teams have completed the feat (1997 Broncos, 1980 Raiders and 1969 Chiefs.) Adding to that, seven other Wild Card teams have advanced to the Super Bowl before losing, falling just short of the promised land. Taking away these playoff bids would be detrimental to not only the fans, but the players as well. There are some teams playing now whose only goal is to make the playoffs, and if those wild card slots are removed what are they fighting for? No players would like heading into the offseason saying, "If those playoff slots hadn't been taken away, we could have caused some major damage." Realistically, to gain the lone wild card berth in either conference, a team would have to go 11-5 to have a decent shot. And with stacked divisions like the AFC West Tagliabue and most NFL owners would like to keep the 16-game schedule and the full playoff for- mat, but that seems unlikely at this point. Moving the date of the Super Bowl back one week has been ham- pered by a scheduling conflict in New Orleans - a conference is set to take place at the Louisiana Superdome the week after the Super Bowl. Another option would be playing the games involving possible wild card teams on the final Saturday of the season. Then the playoffs would start the following Wednesday for those teams, with another game to be played within the next week. Three games in nearly eight days? Not the answer for a legitimate playoff format with everyone get- ting a fair chance. Moving the Super Bowl back two weeks could also have scheduling conflicts while also creating an even lengthier break after the con- ference title games. Plus, do we really want to hear more Super Bowl hoopla? One of the last options is playing both conference title games back- to-back on Jan. 27 - the day that is currently planned for Super Bowl Sunday - in New Orleans. While it proves to be an interesting parallel to the NCAA Basketball Final Four, it still could tarnish whoever wins the Super Bowl and also deempha- sizing the importance of home field advantage. And the NFL surely doesn't want to deal with the same situation the NBA had a few years ago, when the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA title after the strike season, leading some to call it a "token champi- onship." "I'll be curious to see what fol- lows after this," Philadelphia coach Andy Reid told ESPN.com. "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." For the league, the Lions and the fans' sake, I hope they do. Joe Smith can be reached at josephms@umich.edu By Eric Chan For the Daily As college football play resumes this week, we are faced with a week where few ranked teams outside of the Big Ten are playing other strong teams. But, key match-ups in the SEC and the Pac-10 are on the horizon. NO. 18 SOUTH CAROLINA (2-0) AT NO. 17 MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-0), TIIURSDAY, 7:30 P.M., ESPN In a conference filled with giants like Florida, Tennessee and Louisiana State, it's easy to overlook teams like Missis- sippi State's and South Carolina - but don't be mistaken, these teams are defi- nitely contenders for the SEC crown. Mississippi State has veteran quarter- back Wayne Madkin at the helm. In the Bulldogs' first game of the season he completed 12 of 21 passes for 174 yards with a pair of touchdowns. On the ground, Mississippi State's main weapon is Dicenzo Miller. Last year, Miller rushed for 1,005 yards and 6.6 yards per carry (best in the SEC). South Carolina is coming off a huge victory on the road against another SEC powerhouse, Georgia. The Gamecocks feature running back Derek Watson, the SEC's leading returning rusher. Watson ran for 1,066 yards last year and is South Carolina's greatest asset. But, Watson's ankle seemed to be both- ering him against Georgia when he ran for only 13 yards on eight carries. If and only if Watson comes back at full strength against Mississippi State will South Carolina have a fighting chance. Mississippi State's ability to mix it up on the offensive end should be the X-factor in this one. Mississippi St. 17, South Carolina 14 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (1-1) AT No. 7 OREGON (2-0), SATURDAY, 10:15 P.M., FOx SPORTS Nur This Pac 10 game is definitely one worth watching, as it features one of the nation's best quarterbacks against what looks to be a very solid Southern Cal. defense. Oregon quarterback and Heisman candidate Joey Harrington is one of col- lege football's biggest offensive threats. In the Ducks' opener a few weeks ago, Harrington burned Wisconsin for 277 yards while throwing two touch- downs and rushing for a third. Two weeks ago, Southern Cal. held twelfth-ranked Kansas State to only ten points. With this in mind, we must ask ourselves: Did Pete Carroll work a mir- acle with a Southern Cal. defense that was sub-par in 2000? Or was Kansas State's lack of offense just a fluke? Well, Carroll didn't do much with the New England Patriots' defense in his short stint there, so it's probably the latter. At home, Oregon has won 22 straight. Make that 23 after this Satur- day. Oregon 35, Southern California 17 No. 2 FLORIDA (2-0) AT KEN- TCKY (1-1), SATURDAY, 12:30 P.M. Kentucky has the home field advan- tage here so it should be able to pull the upset. Wait, no ... scratch that -the Wildcats are going to get killed. Florida is the No. 2 team in the nation and thus far, the Gators have annihilated their opponents. In its first two games, Florida averaged 52 points per game and 431 yards. Leading the Gators' offense is quarterback Rex Grossman, who is currently fifth in the nation in passing yards with 706 yards. In its first two contests, Kentucky allowed an average of 28 points and almost 300 total yards to mediocre Louisville and Ball State squads. The Wildcats need to come through with some big plays if they want to stay within 30 points. Well, what happens when you com- bine a nasty, relentless Florida offense with Kentucky's less-than-stellar defense? Think Michael Jordan vs. Brian Ellerbe in one-on-one ball .. Florida 41, Kentucky 6 No. 5 FLORIDA STATE (2-0) AT NORTH CAROLINA (0-3), SAIVRDAY, NOON With this match-up on Saturday, we'll see one team that's at the top of its game and another that has essential- ly sucked thus far. The Tar Heels just can't get a break this year. They've started off the schedule against three tough teams ---Oklahoma, Maryland and Texas. Now, after a cancelled game against Southern Methodist -- a team they likely would have beaten - the Tar Heels have to play the fifth-ranked Seminoles. Florida State redshirt freshman quar- terback Chris Rix has stepped in quite nicely for the departed Chris Weinke. It's hard to come out of the shadow of a AP PHOTO Lou Holtz's Gamecocks hope to escape from Mississippi State with a win. Heisman winner, but Rix has done the job. In Florida State's most recent game against Alabama-Birmingham, Rix completed 1 5 of 23 passes for 246 yards. Then again, it was Alabama-Birm- ingham ... The Seminoles' freshman quarter- back has fared better than North Caroli- na's senior quarterback. The Tar Heels had high expectations this year for Ronald Curry, but thus far, Curry has not been able to find his arm - he has- n't thrown a touchdown yet this season, and even worse, he's been picked four times. Can you say, "0-and-4"? North Car- olina will be able to. Florida State 37, North Carolina 7 No. 15 FRESNO Sr (3-0) AT TULSA (1-0), SAIVRDAY, 3:00 P.M. If you've ever watched the NCAA Tournament, you'll know who the Gon- zaga Bulldogs are. Everyone loves watching the Bulldogs because they're known as a Cinderella team. This game doesn't feature Gonzaga, but it features another Cinderella Bull- dogs squad - Fresno State. Thus far, Fresno State is undefeated, having beaten some of the toughest teams in the nation in Colorado, Ore- gon State and Wisconsin. The main rea- son why the Bulldogs have been able to win is quarterback David Carr. Carr has turned a' lot of heads, espe- cially among NFL scouts. He looks to be in the huge pack of players with Heisman aspirations. In three games this season, Carr has thrown for 778 yards and 7 to-uch- downs, only one interception, and has a completion percentage of 59.3 percent. Fresno State shouldn't be too worried about- Tulsa, but it shouldn't send out the reserves either. Tulsa's Josh Blankenship went 29 of 35 with 337 yards and two touchdowns in his first game. If Fresno State can keep the pressure on Blankenship, and Carr keeps doing what he's been doing, the Bulldogs should have their first 4-0 start since 1991. Fresno State 51, Tulsa 24 U U Don't Miss the Action...this weekend in Michigan Athletics Presented by: n r tech. 4O 7., ..d L. G R L L & T A VE R N' . Ann Arbor 575 Briarwood Circle Ann Arbor, MI 48108 ph. (734) 996-0996 f Are you looking for a place to use your great customer skills, energy and a positive attitude? Ann Arbor Bennigan's is looking for upbeat and friendly part-time/ full-time team members for all positions including: hosts, cooks and servers. We pay top wages for top-performers. 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