FORT LAUDERDALE - There is little in common between Florida Atlantic and Colgate, other than they are two of the four teams left in the Division I-AA playoffs.
Colgate has an enrollment of 2,800, is located in a quiet New York town now covered in snow and has a football tradition that dates to the 19th century. FAU is home to 25,000 students in swanky, sunny Boca Raton with a football lineage younger than a kindergartener.
But both will be in uncharted waters when they meet here in today's semifinal. (The game airs at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.) The winner advances to face the Delaware-Wofford champ in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Dec. 19.
Colgate (14-0), the only undefeated team in I-AA, has an NCAA-best 20-game win streak and has not been in the playoffs since 1999. FAU began playing football in 2001 (Colgate, 1890). The Owls (11-2) have a 10-game win streak and are the first startup program to reach the NCAA playoffs in only three years.
"Most of (these players) could have gone to places that were already established ... but they put that aside and they came here to develop this football team," said coach Howard Schnellenberger, who led Miami to the 1983 I-A national title. "They have worked unceasingly for four years to get that done."
BOWL REFORMS: Colleges should graduate at least 50 percent of players as a prerequisite for bowl game eligibility, a commission recommended. The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics said more than half of this year's 56 bowl-bound teams fail to meet their proposed graduation standard.
The commission said only two of this year's bowl games - the Houston Bowl between Navy and Texas Tech, and the Capital One Bowl between Purdue and Georgia - match schools with 50 percent graduation rates or better.
Oklahoma and LSU, which meet in the Sugar Bowl to decide the BCS national champion, have graduation rates for players of 33 and 40 percent, respectively, the commission said.
BUTKUS AWARD: Oklahoma's Teddy Lehman won the award for top linebacker. The senior led OU's top-ranked defense and had 109 tackles, including 17 for loss, one sack, one interception and one forced fumble.
HARLON HILL TROPHY: North Alabama quarterback Will Hall was chosen as the nation's top Division II player. The senior threw for 2,586 yards and 23 touchdowns and led the Lions to the semifinals.
SYRACUSE: Athletic director Jake Crouthamel said Paul Pasqualoni will remain coach for the 2004 season. Syracuse finished this season 6-6, but tied for next to last in the Big East at 2-5. In 13 years, Pasqualoni is 101-53-1.
