Fresno's chances not good

Two games. Two wins. And Pat Hill, of all things, has started to complain.

He thinks FSU should have a shot in the BCS. The other FSU. The one he coaches.

Fresno State University.

"Maybe it is time to see if there is a new and upcoming football team that has a legitimate opportunity to play in the big arena," Hill said. "During the late '70s, Florida State, nobody knew about them. Why not have a school like Fresno State try?"

Before you start thinking Hill took a hit of Anne Heche's Ecstasy while in the fourth dimension that supposedly is Fresno, consider this: The Bulldogs are No. 19 right now. They have beaten Colorado and No. 10 Oregon. If they win at No. 23 Wisconsin today, the Bulldogs have a good shot at running the table.

But none of that may matter in the end because college football is no different than anywhere else. There are haves, and then there are the Fresno States of Division I-A.

The Bulldogs play in the WAC. The WAC is not a part of the BCS. But to get to a BCS bowl (Sugar, Rose, Fiesta, Orange) you must either play in one of the six power conferences (Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, Big East) or be ranked in the top six in the country.

Even then there is a caveat. If a top-six school is not a part of the BCS, it is only guaranteed one of the two at-large berths into a BCS bowl. (This concession was made only after smaller schools screamed antitrust and Congress began to listen.)

The problem is, because of a perceived easier conference schedule in the WAC, the Bulldogs will have a hard time climbing into the top six.

Take Marshall in 1999. The Thundering Herd went undefeated and was No. 10 in the AP. Tulane, undefeated in 1999, was No. 7. Hill is aware of what has happened in the past. He also is aware of the criticism both aforementioned programs received for playing weak non- conference schedules. (Marshall's and Tulane's non-conference opponents won only about 35 percent of their games in those years.)

Determined not to be done in by the same set of circumstances, Hill aggressively scheduled non-conference opponents that won more than 60 percent of their games last season.

"If a non-guaranteed BCS team or conference can't get in by going undefeated with a nonconference schedule of Colorado, Oregon State and Wisconsin, then maybe it is impossible," said WAC commissioner Karl Benson.

Actually what has become impossible at Fresno State is finding the type of non-conference opponents that can give the Bulldogs a strong enough schedule to contend for a high ranking.

"The thing that irritates me is that we've got four Pac-10 schools right here in the state of California and we can't even get a game with them at their place," Hill said. "We had a chance to play SC (Southern Cal) a couple of years ago . . . they chose Louisiana Tech over Fresno State.

"We're calling their athletic director all the time and we never get many answers," he continued. "All we want is a bus ride down and a hotel room. That's all we want."

The Trojans won't play the Bulldogs because they lost to them in the 1992 Independence Bowl. UCLA played them in 1999 and 2000, but the Bruins are booked through 2009. Stanford has enough trouble with San Jose State, without scheduling Fresno State. Cal lost 17-3 last year at Fresno and has no plans of playing the Bulldogs again anytime soon.

The axiom that Pac-10 schools have everything to lose and nothing to gain from playing Fresno State is what is in play here.

"That might be the case," Hill said. "But those are the same schools that, when we are recruiting against them, say their program is a lot better than ours. The only way we can really settle that is on the field.

"Is finding a true champion finding someone who wants to avoid competition to have the great record so maybe they play one or two tough games a year?" he continued. "Is that what we are looking for?"

It may not be what most fans are looking for. But it could be what we are looking at come Jan. 1, unless Fresno State is able to roll through the rest of its schedule.

Bring 'em on

In two games, Brigham Young has scored more points than the rest of the Mountain West Conference combined.

The Cougars have put 122 points on the board. That's more than one point for every minute of football. All before Labor Day, to boot. The last time a BYU offense started this well was back in 1977, when the Cougars put up 104 points in their first two games.

They have scored 17 touchdowns and lead the NCAA in just about every offensive statistical category.

To put it in perspective: Last season, it took this week's BYU opponent, Cal, six games and three overtimes to score 122 points.

By the numbers

18: number of consecutive completions by Eli Manning, brother of Peyton and son of Archie, in his first start for Ole Miss.

106: years since Akron played Ohio State.

126: miles between the two schools.

53: years since Notre Dame visited Nebraska.

56.8: average number of points Florida State has scored on Duke in football since 1994.

69.8: average number of points the FSU basketball team has scored on Duke in the same time period.

13: number of players declared ineligible before Florida Atlantic's first-ever football game.

10: number of losses by Big Ten teams in their last 12 games against non-conference top-25 teams.

Quote of the week

Three times in Lou Holtz's career at Notre Dame, his team played the country's toughest schedule. In 1989 and '90, Holtz and the Irish faced seven ranked teams. In '88, he coached against No. 1 Miami, No. 2 USC and No. 3 West Virginia.

Still, when presented with Boise State, a relative newcomer to Division I-A, last week, Holtz said: "Boise State presents more anxiety than I've ever had."

Don't worry. Holtz's anxiety was momentarily relieved with a 32- 13 win.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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