Please keep Hokies out of Sugar Bowl

Counter

Latack

Isn't Virginia Tech the feel-good story in college football this season? Isn't it nice to see a team rise from obscurity into national prominence, as the fourth-ranked Hokies have done of late?

Because of all these factors, I can say that I am pulling for Virginia Tech all the way. With every foe the Hokies square off against, I hope against hope that they can survive the Temples and Boston Colleges and win the Big East (Motto: Our conference is so bad that none of the teams have any chance of beating Virginia Tech on any given day).

Because if the Hokies win out and get a little help from other teams, they can reach the promised land of the Sugar Bowl and the BCS national championship game. They can parade out onto the turf of the Superdome, their orange and maroon Taco Bell uniforms soaking up the nation's spotlight.

They can line up against almighty Florida State for the right to call themselves the nation's best team. And the Seminoles will proceed to beat the Hokies like they stole something.

Come on, Hokies. I realize I'm not giving Virginia Tech the benefit of the doubt, but they seem to fall under a stipulation that is hidden in the fine print of the hefty BCS rulebook. It's called the Tulane Clause.

It reads something like this: There are certain teams that, even if they remain undefeated for four straight seasons, will rise no higher than fifth in either the polls or the BCS rankings. It should be realized that these teams are undefeated by virtue of an absurdly easy schedule and possibly one impressive victory. Even if they are the only undefeated team in the nation at the end of the season, they will be sent to the Motor City Bowl, where they will be soundly thumped by Marshall.

This was about the size of things last season, when Tulane was one of two remaining undefeateds at season's end. The other one was Florida State.

So, all other things being equal (there's a Latin legal term for this that I can't remember), the Green Wave should have met the Seminoles in the national championship game. Which might have resulted in the first triple-digit spread in college football history. And I still would've taken Florida State.

But thankfully, pollsters allowed rationality to enter into their considerations, and ranked the Green Wave no higher than seventh the entire season. They avoided having to contend with Motor City mainstay Marshall, instead beating BYU in the Liberty Bowl.

But this year, the Hokies are Tulane all over again. The Hokies play in the Big East, which means they roll past teams like Rutgers and Boston College on the way to their conference championship, while the Green Wave had to do battle with the likes of Memphis and Houston.

I will admit that Virginia Tech has looked impressive - they did beat Syracuse by 57 points more than Michigan did, even if they didn't have to do it in the Carrier Dome.

But to say they are national title contenders is a stretch. The game against the Orangemen was Virginia Tech's marquee game. The Hokies knew that a win would be a big step down the Yellow Brick Road to New Orleans, and they delivered.

But as I watch teams like Penn State fight for their lives week after week in the Big Ten, it seems like Virginia Tech is pulling a fast one. They lurk two spots behind the Nittany Lions in the polls, brushing aside Big East foes as Penn State battles with Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State.

If the Lions should falter against one of these teams - all of which I'm convinced could take Virginia Tech - the Hokies already have the travel agency on the other line, looking for the best rate to New Orleans.

It's not a foregone conclusion that the Hokies are going to go undefeated and even if they do, they need Penn State and Nebraska to lose before they start thinking Sugar Bowl.

But I don't want the Hokies being the third remaining undefeated team - I'm all but awarding the Seminoles a spot in the Sugar Bowl - and mucking up the BCS system when they don't belong there to begin with. In order to make the Sugar Bowl, you should have to beat at least one top-10 team to get there. Virginia Tech has no such team on their schedule.

So if there's any justice in this world, the Hokies won't go undefeated. They still have to face Miami (Fla), the only ranked team remaining on their schedule.

So let's hope that the 23rd-ranked Hurricanes can regain some of the swagger (and talent) they had in the early '90s, when the 2 Live Crew were their biggest fans and the players had to take a pay cut when they got drafted by the NFL.

Because if the Hokies get past the Hurricanes, they're on the road to an undefeated season and Bourbon Street. Their Nov. 13 meeting with Miami is their last hurdle, and to preserve the good name of college football - and an exciting national championship game - I'll be the biggest Miami fan around on that day.

I'm going to dust off my copy of "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" right now.

- Andy Latack does not actually own a copy

of 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty As They Wanna Be,"

although he did in sixth grade. If you have a copy he

can dub, e-mail him at latack@umich.edu.

10-21-99