The Cavalier daily :: Friday, April 13, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

An idea proposed by the
NCAA's television committee
to endorse a 1974 "College
Poll Bowl" to determine the
national collegiate football
champion has received raves
from member schools.

John McKay, who is the
athletic director and head
football coach at Southern
California, was overjoyed with
the concept, saying "it's the
best idea to come along in
years. It shortens the time my
boys will have to wait until the
start of spring practice!"

McKay spoke as if his team
had been invited already. At
the opposite viewpoint was
Wake Forest's deposed Tom
Harper, somewhat a pessimist,
who groaned, "That's all my
successor needs. Here he's
going to have his hands full
rebuilding the program, and
you people come along and ask
him to vote on some damn
"super game" that he'll never
get his team into."

A vote is expected to be
taken at the annual NCAA
meetings in a few weeks. The
proposal doesn't outline details
for the game, such as location
and selection of participants.

McKay smiled when asked
where he thought the game
should be played. "As I recall,
the first Super Bowl was
played in a city where the
weather was warm in January,
the stadium was plenty big
enough to hold 75,000 people,
and there were adequate hotel
accommodations for fans and
press. It was played in our own
Los Angeles Coliseum!"

Among the coaching elite,
there was virtually unanimous
support of the proposal. Bear
Bryant, dean of college
coaches, said, "We've been
having our troubles on New
Year's Day recently, maybe
our guys would like an extra
week or two to practice."

Woody Hayes, possessor of
an unparalleled Big Ten record,
growled, "Throughout history,
the object of competition has
been to win, to be the best. We
would be more than willing to
play anyone, except that
school to the north (Hayes
makes it a point never to say
the word "Michigan"), for the
national championship. I have
only two demands:
mob-resistant goalposts and a
ban on sideline
photographers."

Joe Paterno, the coach of a
Penn State team which is
much-maligned in the polls,
joked, "Other teams get votes
from the sportswriters. We get
the shaft."

In a more serious vein,
Paterno expressed concern over
the ambiguous method of
selecting the national
champion in the past.
"Sometimes they vote on
records, other times they vote
on the toughness of a team's
schedule. Always they vote for
teams west of the Allegheny
mountains."

Darrell Royal, the premier
coach in the Southwest
Conference, had an interesting
opinion. "We've been very
fortunate in recent bowl
games, most particularly in the
Cotton Bowl, and have built up
quite a reputation. Rather than
play in a 'Poll Bowl', I believe
we'd prefer to dance with the
one that brung us."

Charlie Coffey, Virginia
Tech's coach, isn't among the
coaching elite but put in his
two cents anyway. "It would
be nice to have a 1974
championship in football to go
with our 1973 national
championship in basketball.
However, the game would be
played right during our first
semester finals. Our kids are
pretty serious students, and
I'm not too sure if they would
be willing to leave their pigs
unattended just for an athletic
contest."

Last but not least in the
coaching ranks was Virginia's
own Don Lawrence. Mr.
Lawrence felt that the idea was
a good one, saying, "it would
be an excellent addition to our
program." After a pause, he
added, "Come to think of it, it
doesn't really concern me,
anyway. I don't care."

Final verdict will have to
come from ABC television
network, which has one year
remaining on a $17 million
pact with the NCAA. Roone
Arledge, sports director for
ABC, seemed reluctant to
finance the project.

"Unless the American
people start flying United and
buying all kinds of shaving
cream, we're not going to have
the cash to add this game to
our schedule. And what would
it be without TV?"