Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Monday, January 3, 2000

Seminoles and Hokies
a perfect finish

AND then there was only one postseason game: the Sugar Bowl matchup between college football's unbeaten teams - Florida State and Virginia Tech - ranked 1-2 in the nation.

They meet tomorrow night in New Orleans in the 24th and final bowl game of the 1999 season to settle the national championship and win the bragging rights that go with being No. 1.

Maybe it's not the best possible system to determine the national champ.

However, it's the best anyone can devise without an unwieldy process that would force a school to play three more games, besides doing away with the current bowl set-up that rewards players from 48 schools with a postseason appearance and an opportunity to feel good about themselves.

For example, teams such as Hawaii, Boise State, Oregon, Texas Christian and Wake Forest, all went to bowl games and won. That might not have been possible if the NCAA had adopted a playoff format. And here's hoping it never comes to that.

Besides, no playoff format could have improved on how it all turned out this season with Florida State and Virginia Tech playing for the title.

Nebraska fans can whine all they want about how they, instead of the Hokeis, should have been playing the Seminoles. But the Cornhuskers fumbled away their chance by losing to Texas and barely escaping with a 33-30 overtime victory over Colorado when the Buffaloes' kicker blew a 33-yard field goal that would have won the game in regulation.

Kansas State, which also lost only one game, found itself out of the championship picture after getting blown out by Nebraska. Adding insult to injury, the Wildcats weren't even considered by the Bowl Championship Series selection committee to play in any of its four designated bowl games.

MANY fans might question Virginia Tech playing for the national crown. Sure, the Hokies went 11-0, and who'd they play? Except for a huge victory over No. 23 Miami, their opponents finished with a collective 51-63 won-lost record.

It's also doubtful if Virginia Tech's red-shirt freshman quarterback will be able to hold up against the Seminoles. As precocious and talented as Michael Vick is, the Florida State defense should prove too much for him.

This is not to say the Hokies aren't deserving to be in the title game, or that Florida State will have an easy time of it against them.

The Seminoles have some emotional baggage, too, going into bowl games with a national title on the line.

For one thing, they've never remained unbeaten after a bowl game despite finishing among the top four in each of the last 12 years.

Surely, they've got to be wondering once again.

IT also doesn't help that Florida State's All-American kicker, Sebastian Janikowski,i had a big spread recently in in Sports Illustrated. Talk about an SI jinx waiting to happen.

All said and done, though, count on Bobby Bowden and his Seminoles finally finishing with an undefeated season. Defense and a couple of field goals by Janikowski, who will leave for the NFL draft a year early, will be the difference.

Never mind that Janikowski missed a curfew. Bowden isn't about to sit him out.

When tomorrow's Sugar Bowl is over, not only will Florida State be No. 1, but Virginia Tech will remain No. 2.

The Hokies will prove to the national television audience that they deserved to be playing for the national title, after the school's first perfect regular-season in 81 years.