Division I-AA Shows Argument For Playoffs Isn't All Academic

By Adam Kilgore
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 7, 2008

Either Ohio State or Louisiana State will claim the Bowl Championship Series title tonight, a designation drenched in ambiguity no matter who wins. For years, division I-A football officials have opposed the kind of playoff format that would avoid such murkiness, using final exams as part of the reason for favoring the current bowl structure. Players shouldn't have to balance football and academics when both become most demanding, the argument goes.

In December 2005, a handful of spokesmen for the BCS testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with respect to college football's postseason, and each argued that exams made the bowls a better alternative to a playoff.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany wrote in a prepared statement: "If, as some of our critics have charged, college football has strayed too far from the original model envisioned for amateur athletics in the academic tradition, then we hardly hasten a return to that model by expanding the Division I-A post-season to a multi-game, NFL-style playoff format."

And yet, division I-AA players do it every season. Kenneth Peacock, the chancellor at three-time defending I-AA champion Appalachian State, meets annually with the presidents from his league, the Southern Conference. The topic of football distracting from academics -- or vice versa -- has never been brought up. "It's never been an issue," he said.

Division I-AA finalists Delaware and Appalachian State played 15 games last season -- 11 regular season and four playoff games. Moreover, the postseason in other sports forces athletes to balance class and games. The NCAA men's basketball tournament, the most lucrative event conducted by the NCAA, runs throughout March and keeps players out of classrooms for weeks in some cases because of games and travel. The NCAA baseball tournament forces a similar amount of classes to be missed.

"It's doable," said Charlie Cobb, the athletic director at Appalachian State, which defeated division I-A Michigan this season. "People always ask me which system I would choose because of my experience [as the North Carolina State athletic director for seven years]. I prefer the playoff system. There are good arguments for the bowls, but [the academic] argument is sort of nonsense."

Those who voice it often feel otherwise.

"How much do you affect an academic schedule by changing a system into a complete playoff system?" LSU Coach Les Miles said. "That's the issue. When you play at this level, you cannot play 16, 18 games and feel like you can prepare a college student."

Road Tests

Appalachian State has attempted to strike an academic-athletic balance though a combination of time management by players and campus-wide cooperation among faculty. That has forced a few arrangements that would make some purists uneasy.

Two days before they beat Delaware for their third straight title, Corey Lynch and 30 of his Mountaineers teammates ambled into a ballroom on the first floor of a Chattanooga Sheraton, still bleary-eyed from the previous night's late bus ride from Boone, N.C.

For the next two hours, the Bessie Smith Room would serve as an academic testing site. A white sheet of paper, affixed to both entrances with Scotch tape, read "QUIET PLEASE EXAMS."

At the front of the room, Alan J. Hauser, a biblical studies professor and faculty representative, and Kim Sherrill, a member of Appalachian State's academic services for athletes, sat behind a table covered with manila envelopes, pencils, calculators and green slips of paper with the heading: "Integrity Agreement for the accommodation of Alternate Testing through the Office of Academic Services for Athletes."

At 10 a.m., Hauser and Sherrill walked around the room, pulling out tests by name. Earlier in the week, the school provost e-mailed the entire ASU faculty and explained the circumstances: Football players with finals scheduled for the Wednesday before the Friday championship game would need to take the exams off campus, in the hotel.

After two years of handling the title game, teachers understood. They sealed tests in envelopes, to be gathered by academic support services and distributed in Chattanooga.

"That's really kind of a bogus argument," Hauser said of a playoff interfering with academics. "If you're structured and organized and doing your work the whole semester, it's not going to be that big of a deal at the end. It's certainly workable."

Roughly 70 minutes after he sat down, Lynch continued writing in the emptying ballroom. Lynch, a three-time all-American safety, prefers school this time of year to any other. In high school, his grades always improved during the season, the routine of practice helping him focus.

"I don't think I could have ever gotten through college without football," Lynch said. "When you're on a regimented schedule, you always study more."

After turning in his test, Lynch walked out of the Bessie Smith Room, hurried back toward the lobby elevator and paced to his room to change. He had practice later that afternoon.

Up for the Challenge

Though teams in division I-AA have been mixing exams with games for years, some still wonder if there could be similar success in I-A. At the end of the 2004 season, Virginia President John T. Casteen III declined an invitation to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando because it would be played Dec. 21, the final day of Virginia's final exam schedule.

Instead, Virginia accepted a bid to the less prestigious MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, on Dec. 27.

"I understood that," Cavaliers linebacker John Copper said. A playoff "might put a little more strain. But football is a priority, so I'd do what I have to do, if that was the case."

Outside forces, such as media demands, are amplified at the game's highest level, but division I-A schools also have larger budgets and more support staff to accommodate players.

"We still have the school year during the season, so we're kind of used to it," Ohio State defensive end Doug Worthington said. "We have a great support system that helps us manage it. It would be a little tougher when it comes down to finals week. The school probably would understand it and would help us in certain ways."

Said Ohio State tight end Brandon Smith: "I guess it would be interesting, but when you really think seriously about installing a playoff, you think about how long the season would have to be. . . . It's already long enough and here we are in January. How are you going to do it? I think it's just too much."

Some of the Appalachian State football players felt that way, crammed into the ballroom some 48 hours before playing the most important game of their season. Afterward, though, they also agreed the stress was worthwhile. Years from now, unlike whichever team wins tonight, the merits of their national championship will not be questioned.

"I would not want to see us make excuses for the guys -- 'Oh, well, you have playoffs.' " said Sherrill, the Appalachian State academic adviser. "It's, 'You've got a lot on your plate, so rise to the occasion.' I think the BCS could do the same thing.

"It's a challenge. But it's worth it."

Staff writer Eric Prisbell contributed to this report from New Orleans.