12th game proves to be a mixed blessing

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, February 15, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Now that the NCAA has ruled that Division 1-A football teams can add a 12th game, most of them have. But here it is February, and several schools – notably the Syracuse Orange and Rutgers Scarlet Knights of the Big East and the Wisconsin Badgers of the Big Ten -- are still looking like teen-agers without a date for the prom.

Remember how there was always one couple that had broken up just before the big dance, leaving both members scrambling to find another partner? That's what happened to Syracuse when East Carolina opted out of the final game of a series between the two teams.

The Pirates used that extra game to schedule West Virginia, but Syracuse is still looking. The Orange even went begging to Buffalo, the team next door, asking it to move a 2007 meeting up a year. No thanks, they were told.

Meanwhile, Rutgers has the same problem, leading Syracuse Post-Standard sportswriter Donnie Webb to suggest a unique solution -- since Syracuse and Rutgers already play each other in 2006, why not play twice, home and away?

It may come to that.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin has fallen prey to the Big Ten's tradition of not scheduling any games beyond the third Saturday in November, in part to keep the Michigan-Ohio State game as the seasonal climax. With a Nov. 18 hole in its schedule, the Badgers are now negotiating with … Buffalo.

Last season, the Bulls were 1-10 and arguably the worst Division I team in America. So this year, they've scheduled Auburn, Boston College and, perhaps, Wisconsin – all on the road. It would seem that Syracuse (also 1-10 in 2005) would have been more palatable.

What makes the 12th game problematic was that teams only have 13 weeks to work with (the NCAA won't allow any games before Labor Day weekend). As a sweetener, though, rules were changed to allow one victory over a Division 1-AA team to count toward the BCS standings.

So before you could say "40-point favorite," Virginia Tech -- which will be breaking in a new quarterback this fall -- scheduled Northeastern as its opener.

The last-minute scramble did produce one intriguing matchup. Fresno State, which proclaims it will play "anybody, anywhere" agreed to enter the LSU Tiger's den on Oct. 21. And one not-so-intriguing matchup -- Oklahoma got a Sept. 23 date with Middle Tennessee.

On the surface, then, the 12th game won't make college football any better, just bigger. And it's a bit unclear what might happen -- if anything -- if teams like Syracuse, Rutgers or Wisconsin are unable to fill their schedule.

Wonder if they've tried the Internet?
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