Three hundred thirteen to one hundred one. 313-101. No matter how you write it, this isn't a close score. Yet it is the combined scores of the games involving the top five college football teams in the nation last weekend. 313-101. Combined, they scored over three times as many points as their opponents. Enthralling, huh?

College football, once the most exciting part of a Saturday afternoon, has a big problem. The top teams are blowing out their opponents. Florida State, fresh off of a 70-26 shellacking of Duke two weeks ago, thrashed North Carolina State 77-17 on Saturday. FSU head coach Bobby Bowden wrote a note of apology to the Duke squad after the first game. I guess NC State should be expecting some mail as well.

Of course the blame can't fall on Bowden, or anywhere in Tallahassee, Florida. While the Seminoles were racking up points, the other top teams weren't far behind. The second-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers beat up on Arizona State 77-28, Texas A&M, ranked third, beat Tulsa 52-9, the Seminoles' in-state rivals, the University of Florida, came back to rout Tennessee, who, by the way, was ranked 12th in the nation, 62-37, and, well, you get the picture.

So, what's the problem? Who takes the blame? What can be done? Those are difficult questions to answer. Scheduling could be part of it. Florida State, coming off these heartstoppers, will be facing the Division I-AA University of Central Florida this week-end. If UCF can stay within 50, it'll be a moral victory.

Scheduling isn't the entire problem. Duke and NC State are both in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the same as FSU. Therefore, the Seminoles must play these schools every year.

But, it seems that schools are playing more and more cakewalk non-conference games every season. There is no reason for Florida State to play Central Florida this weekend. There is no reason for Southern Cal to have played Houston last weekend (Houston, who, by the way, opened the season against the Florida Gators). There is no reason for Nebraska to play Pacific or for Colorado to have played Northeast Louisiana.

This is not to say that interesting college games are a thing of the past. Oregon and UCLA had a thrilling game last weekend, and Colorado and Texas A&M are scheduled to play this Saturday, a game that will pit the eighth- and third-ranked teams in the country against each other. But one exciting game between two highly-ranked teams in a weekend just isn't enough. Not for me, anyway.

It's hard for any college football fan to eagerly anticipate who is going to be ranked in the top five each week when it simply comes down to whose score was closest to a three-digit number. It just isn't fun to watch a game where one team knows they're going to win and the other is fully prepared to lose. I would rather watch close, contested games where the outcome isn't decided until the fourth quarter, and the first-string players have to keep fighting until the very end. I think I'll skip the UCF-FSU game this weekend, and wait until the Golden Knights of Central Florida play someone more at their level. As a matter of fact, we in the Ivy League are the lucky ones. We have the opportunity to watch one of the most competitive leagues in the country every weekend. If you don't believe me, you didn't catch the Yale-Brown game last Saturday. 42-38. Each team showed amazing resiliency, with Brown coming back from a 17-point halftime deficit to take a late lead, only to see Yale score twice in the fourth quarter to win. A game that came down to the final play, with the Bulldog defense stopping Brown three yards short of a win. That's two teams with a similar level of talent getting together to play a tough, hard-fought game that neither team can afford to lose for reasons of pride, not money. That's exciting. That's football.

Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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