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 Friday, December 13, 2002
The "Miami rule" is biting the 'Canes
By Jack Arute
Special to ABC Sports Online
Nebraska controls its own destiny. Just keep winning, baby.
The Cornhuskers have a tough job ahead of them. They have to play Oklahoma again in the Big 12 Championship game. Plus, they have Colorado. Of course, is it going to be a Pesavento Colorado or an Ochs Colorado? Ochs seems a little nicked.
Miami has been victimized by the "Miami" rule. -- the quality win component. A year ago, the Hurricanes' victory over Florida State would have given them a quality win component that would have jumped them ahead of Oklahoma in this week's standings. But this year, Florida State isn't even in the top 15, so there is no quality win bonus points.
To exacerbate the weeping and gnashing of teeth in Coral Gables, the Virginia Tech game that everyone wanted to look at it is in trouble because Virginia Tech is hanging on by a thread at 15. If the Hokies drop out of the top 15, there is no available quality win points there.
If you are a Miami fan, do you root for Syracuse to get better? The Hurricanes have Washington left on its schedule, which could help boost the quality win index, but when you watch the Pac-10, I wouldn't want to be a Miami fan right now.
All of a sudden, this weekend's Michigan-Michigan State game looms much larger than it did a week ago. Michigan, which is fourth in the latest standings, could easily lock up the Big Ten before it plays Ohio State if the Wolverines beat Michigan State this weekend. They would have to lose two of their final four games to not win the conference.
If Oklahoma loses in the Big 12 Championship game, the Wolverines could make a run on Miami at the second spot.
The Pac-10 has five teams in the top 15. They have the most teams in the top 15, but they suffer from the conference parity by beating up on each other.
You are going to see teams on the rise and teams on the decline. Keep an eye on the quality win component because its weight changes every week. The sliding scale is going to play a big role in the weekly standings and could be the determining factor of who plays whom for the national title. If Texas hits the skids and loses to Texas A&M and falls out of the top 15, Oklahoma's 1.1 bonus goes away.
This is more fun than anything I could come up with to occupy my time. Why do you need a playoff when you can have this water cooler discussion every week?
This is good for college football.
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