NCAA mulls permanent 12th game

[Papa_Bull]

It's passed its first hurdle, thus making it more likely it will ultimately be approved and Miami will be playing at RayJay in 2006.

Also, it looks like Louisville's 2004 BCS ranking will count towards the Big East.

Posted 1/10/2005 12:46 AM     Updated 1/10/2005 1:35 AM

 

NCAA mulls permanent 12th game

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY

GRAPEVINE, Texas  Major football-playing schools are closer to getting a 12th regular-season game every season, a potential $1 million or better windfall for many top programs.

The NCAA's Division I Management Council kept the proposal alive Sunday, forwarding it for a final review by the council and the association's top rules-making body, the Division I Board of Directors, in April. If passed by both, the measure would take effect for the 2006 season.

Divisions I-A, where support is stronger, and second-tier I-AA are weighing the revision separately.

"My sense of it is that there's not unanimity on the issue among the I-A conferences, let alone the I-AA conferences," said David Berst, the NCAA's vice president for Division I, "and the 60 days (in which it will be reviewed by member schools) will be important."

Schools already are allowed a 12th regular-season game when the calendar yields 14 Saturdays from late August to the end of November. That was the case in 2002 and 2003 but won't be again until 2008 and, after that, 2013.

Adding a home game to a schedule means an average of $1.5 million to schools in the Big 12 Conference, which is co-sponsoring the measure. At Texas, the net is close to $3.5 million in ticket and TV revenues.

Meanwhile, basketball coaches apparently have more work to sell a package of far-reaching proposals they drew up, many loosening restrictions on coaches' contact with recruits and offseason access to players already in their programs.

Meeting in conjunction with the annual NCAA convention, the Management Council preserved most of the measures but made it clear the panel's support in April isn't guaranteed.

Council members still must be convinced that coaches won't stretch the new freedoms, Berst said. "There's a trust gap," he said.

BCS discussions: Football's Bowl Championship Series is months from ironing out its team-selection process. But after meeting during the NCAA convention, its supervisors are close to setting new criteria under which conferences automatically qualify their champions.

The number of automatic qualifiers, now six, could dip to five or rise to seven beginning with the 2008 season, said Big 12 commissioner and BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg. The founding Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern will retain automatic slots at least until then, when the BCS enters the third year of a new TV agreement and expanded five-bowl format that takes effect in 2006.

The new qualifying guidelines will credit leagues for the number of teams among the top 12 and top 25 in the BCS' end-of-season standings over a rolling four-year span. The 2004 season is the first to be counted. In a win for the realigned Big East, which adds Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida next season, there is a tentative agreement to allow leagues to claim the '04 performances of pending members.

Meanwhile, it might take until April or beyond for the BCS to figure out how it will continue to pick teams for the more than $125 million arrangement. Weiberg has approached the Football Writers Association of America about substituting its poll for the recently pulled Associated Press media poll in the formula used to rank teams but was told writers prefer their rankings be used in an advisory rather than official fashion.

The BCS also is weighing formation of a committee that could conduct its own replacement poll and oversee the selection process, including designation of the teams that meet for its title.

Henson back home: New Mexico State men's basketball coach Lou Henson was released from the hospital Saturday and will finish his recovery from pneumonia at home.

School spokesman Tyler Dunkel said he did not know when Henson, who turns 73 today, would return to coaching.

Henson fell ill shortly before practice Thursday. He was stricken in September with viral encephalitis and had been scheduled to coach for the first time this season Saturday night.

Coaches gather: The American Football Coaches Association's annual convention began a four-day run Sunday in Louisville.

Highlighting the agenda is a lunch meeting Wednesday of NCAA Division I-A head coaches at which they're expected to discuss the possibility of making public their votes in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll.

Contributing: Wire reports

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2005-01-10-notes_x.htm