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© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2002
PINEHURST, N.C. -- ACC commissioner John Swofford confessed he's relieved to no longer be coordinating the Bowl Championship Series standings.
Aside from the time commitment, his two-year stewardship was marked by controversy involving the No. 2 teams in the finale -- Florida State in 2000 and Nebraska last season. Both years, the Associated Press and coaches polls agreed on a different No. 2 team, Miami and Oregon, respectively.
That sparked talk that the BCS needed a selection committee akin to what the NCAA men's basketball tournament has to choose and seed its postseason teams. The committee could use the complicated BCS formula as a tool much in the way the men's basketball committee uses the RPI.
"It was seriously considered," Swofford said. "But it would be so difficult to have people who didn't have some connection to one of the conferences."
Even the appearance of impropriety would be a death knell.
"If you put some guy in there who makes the final decision and I find out he went to Penn State and he picks them instead of us ... ," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said.
You can bet he would utter more than a few dadgummits.
Bowden said he would like to see the BCS require that a team win its league to play in the championship game. That would have eliminated Nebraska last year. Swofford said that too was discussed, but with so many leagues not playing a true round-robin, the BCS decided not to make that change.
FSU RECRUITING UPDATE: The Seminoles landed one of the nation's top classes in February, but the ranking would drop now. Five players -- receiver Dishon Platt, tight end Lonnie Davis, defensive linemen Chris Anderson, Chris Bradwell and Chris Turner -- did not qualify academically. All are likely to go to junior college or a prep school. A sixth signee, receiver Chauncey Stovall, has not finished junior college and his status is up in the air. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg Catholic receiver Chris Davis tore an anterior cruciate ligament and will be out for the year.