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Psst, buddy, you want a playoff?

Okay, it's not a formal one, but the BCS standings coupled with some nifty scheduling give us the closest thing.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 24, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- If you think college football lacks a playoff, you're mistaken.

A de facto "win-or-you're-out post-season" was set up with Monday night's release of the first Bowl Championship Series standings of the season, the complex ranking system that determines the matchup for the national-title game on Jan. 3 at the Orange Bowl.

Nebraska (7-0), the top team in the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls, is No. 1, followed by Oklahoma (6-0), Virginia Tech (7-0), Miami (5-1), Florida State (7-1), Florida (6-1) and Clemson (8-0).

In the first two years of the BCS -- put in place (in theory) to more objectively pair the nation's top two teams -- only a couple of the top teams played each other in the final weeks of the season.

But this season, the top BCS teams all play one another. The next two weekends figure to be as dramatic and consequential as any proposed playoff weekends could ever be. Consider:

Nebraska travels to Oklahoma on Saturday.

Florida meets Georgia on Saturday in Jacksonville.

Virginia Tech plays at Miami on Nov.4.

FSU hosts Clemson on Nov.4.

"If there's such a thing as a playoff, this is one right here," said FSU coach Bobby Bowden, a longtime opponent of a playoff. "It's like dominoes, you lose, you go back to the bottom of the line. The atmosphere will be very much like a playoff."

If that's not enough, there still is the Nov. 18 FSU-Florida game in Tallahassee and the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference championship games on Dec. 2.

Needless to say, the deck will be shuffled. And reshuffled.

"Goodness, no, we don't talk about the BCS," Florida coach Steve Spurrier said. "We're not good enough to worry about all that stuff. Our goal is to win the Eastern Division and to do that we have to to beat Georgia and South Carolina. One is 6-1 and the other 7-1. We don't need to worry about all that."

Miami coach Butch Davis echoed that sentiment. "It's always flattering to be mentioned among the nation's top programs, particularly at this point in the season," he said. "By the same token, our focus remains on the task at hand: winning football games."

The resurgent Hurricanes do control their path to the Orange Bowl. If they win out, they figure to remain at home in January. Simple.

Not much else is clear cut about the BCS, which incorporates the champions of the SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and Pac-10 and two at-large selections -- any team that finishes in the Top 6 in the final BCS poll or Notre Dame, if it wins nine games, are in the mix -- and the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.

Not much figures to change for Texas Christian (6-0), ranked No.11 in the AP and coaches poll and is No.13 in the BCS. A soft schedule casts TCU in the role of Tulane and Marshall, teams that were undefeated in 1998 and 1999, respectively, which never garnered consideration for the title game.

In fact, no team that began lower than fifth in the first BCS poll has reached the title game.

Last season, the Seminoles were first and Virginia Tech third at this point in the BCS standings. The Hokies took over the No. 2 spot when Penn State lost to Minnesota. In 1998, the Seminoles were No. 5 in the first BCS poll, the highest rated one-loss team. They won 10 straight after a loss at North Carolina State, but still needed Miami to upset UCLA and Texas A&M to stun Kansas State on the regular season's last day to reach the Fiesta Bowl.

"We need some of those top people to get knocked off," Bowden said. "I know that. If we won the rest of our games, we still need something to happen up there."

It will.

The playoff, er, the BCS guarantees it.

-- Staff writer Joanne Korth contributed to this report.

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