Thursday, September 11, 2003

When he was a coach in Conference USA at Louisville, John L. Smith had to posture about how lower-level conferences needed to be included in the Bowl Championship Series. Now, as Michigan State's coach in the Big Ten, one of the six major conferences in the BCS, Smith finally can let his feelings be known.

"To be honest, when you're one of the have-nots looking in, you're saying, we want a piece of the pie, too," Smith said. "Now as one of the haves, you look at it the other way around, saying, why split up the pie more than it is. You definitely don't want to do that.

"Realistically, seeing both sides of the coin, the champions of those leagues don't have a chance. I don't see any reason to split the pie. Let's be realistic, there are maybe four teams in the country that have the chance to be the best.

"And I hate to say it, but you're just not one of them being in one of those [other] leagues."

Smith's state rival in Ann Arbor, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, would like to see more inclusion, but he does not want to change the current system or go to a playoff format.

"Anytime people are in the same division, you want to give them an opportunity," Carr said. "Hopefully, we can have a process where everyone has a fair shot at winning a national championship."

Gamble's role

Ohio State's Chris Gamble made waves last season when he started at defensive back and receiver for the national champion Buckeyes. He had 31 receptions for 499 yards on offense and four interceptions and 24 tackles on defense.

So far this season, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel is using Gamble judiciously. He does not have a catch through two games and is being employed mostly on defense and special teams.

"He's still playing receiver," Tressel said. "We've played some warm-weather games and we've got a 12-game schedule in front of us. One decision you have to make I think is how much you ask of him.

"He's on our specialty units as punt-returner and kick-returner. He plays defense, and we've faced two really good passing teams. He's played a little wideout. We've had some routes called hoping we got it to him, but we have not.

"We just have to see how the flow of the game is going. Our third priority for Chris is offense, even though our offensive coaches don't like it."

Losing close ones

Purdue continued a nasty habit of losing close games in its opener Saturday against Bowling Green of the Mid-American Conference . The No. 16 Boilermakers, picked as one of the conference favorites, dropped a 27-26 decision at home.

Dating to last season, coach Joe Tiller's team has lost seven games by seven points or fewer. Four of those games have been by three points or fewer.

The schedule doesn't get easier. This week the Boilermakers travel to No. 18 Wake Forest, then play host to Arizona and Notre Dame in consecutive weeks.

No elbow room

After reviewing a tape from Northwestern's game against Air Force, in which Falcons quarterback Chance Harridge claimed he was elbowed in the chin by a Northwestern assistant coach near the sideline, the conference yesterday ruled there was insufficient evidence to determine whether a violation of the conference's sportsmanlike-conduct agreement occurred.

"We just get a big turnover in the game, and [the assistant] runs on the field and he jumps and hugs one of our players," Northwesern coach Randy Walker said. "He makes incidental contact with Chance. It was not intended, it was not even directed at Chance.

"I'll make that copy of the film available to anyone. And anyone that looks at that and believes there's an assault taking place on their quarterback, it's preposterous."

Harridge retaliated with a punch to the assistant coach and was ejected from the game.

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