Letters
After a few years of a college football playoff, it will be hard to remember why it was ever opposed.
STEVEN ST. CLAIR, CHARLOTTE, N.C.
College Playoff
Bravo to Tim Layden for his POINT AFTER debunking the need for a college football playoff (Aug. 29). Each round of playoffs in a sport brings a further trivialization of the regular season.
Everyone lauds the NCAA basketball tournament, but why? Rarely does No. 1 play No. 2 for the national title. The feelings arise mostly because it makes for good television. The current system in college football comes close to a No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup anyway, given the bowl coalition. And what is so wrong with not having a clear-cut No. 1?
PERRY CLARK, St. Charles, Mo.
I agree that a playoff would draw in unthinkable amounts of money, but has anyone ever considered how much money could be lost by having a playoff? The way college football is now, the whole season is a playoff, and fans fill scats every Saturday to see if their team's hopes of a national title will carry on until the following weekend. Let's keep college football unique and have the polls go on deciding who gets the rings.
MICHAEL WAJDA, Montclair, N.J.
The solution: 1) Stay with the present bowl system; 2) after the bowls, select the two top-rated teams for a championship bowl. The arguments usually come down to two teams, and such a format would resolve matters on the Held. Last season a Florida State-Notre Dame rematch would have been great.
MICK GALLIGAN, Normal, Ill.
Claiming Victory
The overload of hypocrisy in your Sept. 12 SCORECARD galls me. Four years after the fact, we're reminded of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney's levelheaded decision not to surrender a victory because of one mistake by the officials. Meanwhile, we're expected to honor a coach who reads the rule book during a game and to respect a referee who allows a coach to make game decisions for him.
TODD WEHNER, Austin, Texas
Why do people persist in saying that Colorado should have given back the touchdown against Missouri scored on a "fifth down." It was an officiating mistake and thus the job of the officials to correct. It is ridiculous to suggest that teams should take responsibility for correcting these errors. I don't recall many fans complaining that the Kansas City Royals should have reversed the call by the first base umpire in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series that allowed the Royals to stay alive and subsequently win the Series, even though replays clearly showed that the K.C. runner was out.
ALEX PARKHURST, Denver
Role Models
Your profile of Pete Sampras (Natural Born Killer, Sept. 5) reminded me of why, as a kid, I idolized Ashe, Laver, Rosewall, Smith and Borg and why I still play tennis as passionately now as I did when I was 11. Let's ignore the antics of those who fall short of Sampras's example and encourage him to blaze a trail back to the days when tennis players competed for the love of the game.
CAMERON STOUT, Mill Valley, Calif.
You missed an opportunity by not putting Tiger Woods on your cover (Comeback Kid, Sept. 5). Woods represents all that is going right with our youth. He is poised, polite, thoughtful and disciplined. He made all of America happy and proud by coming from behind to win golf's U.S. Amateur title.
GERRY WONG CHING, Honolulu
PHOTO
RONALD C. MODRA
A bad call at first base and a fifth-down TD tainted victories by the Royals and Colorado, respectively.
PHOTO
BRIAN TIRPAK
[See caption above.]
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