Shatel: Change for BCS would be real plus

The BCS championship game is over and now the fun begins. Get ready for BCS change.

Can Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany stop it? Should he even want to?

The BCS commissioners will meet in New Orleans on Tuesday, and BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock says "everything is on the table." We assume that means changes, not gift bags.

SEC Commish Mike Slive said last week that he expects significant changes, and that's significant. One, because Slive is a power broker. Two, he also favors a "plus-one" format, or taking the top two ranked teams after the four BCS bowls and staging a championship game.

That will be the hot topic of discussion. The Big 12 previously has voted against it, but since Dan Beebe has left, the Big 12 has reconsidered its position.

The biggest road block has been Delany, who is vehemently against a playoff or anything that would change the Big Ten-Pac-12-Rose Bowl marriage.

With Slive and the Big 12 on board, Delany may not be able to stop it this time. But why would he want to?

A plus-one wouldn't impact the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten and Pac-12 champs could still meet there every year and if one happens to be in the big game, they can move on the following week.

In this format, the Rose Bowl wouldn't have to take TCU or have Alabama or Texas set foot on its sacred turf. It would be just us Big Ten and Pac-12 types.

You could make the argument that a plus-one opens the path to a playoff, and that could damage the Rose Bowl. But I have seen different playoff scenarios that keep the bowl ties intact.

A plus-one wouldn't completely douse the controversies. But this, along with open bowl selection (the way it used to be), would be a positive step. After this year's sagging bowl attendance and TV ratings, the bowls should embrace it.

Delany likely won't. But this time it may not matter.

• The Bolievers have been heard. And how. They are not embarrassed by their head coach and stand by their man. They say Pelini is growing and the best is yet to come. That's a sentiment I think all Husker fans can support.

More than one of the countless Pelini fans I heard from since Sunday's column brought up a good point: Bo's press conference at the Penn State game, and the way his team conducted itself, was exemplary. Husker fans were proud that day. Very fair point.

• Beginning Tuesday, Creighton plays four games in nine days. Wow. (Each Valley school has that schedule at some point.) Blame it on the Valley tournament being a week earlier than the rest. But also blame it on the BracketBusters, which takes away a conference date in late February.

CU Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen told me on Monday that he's never been a big fan of the BracketBusters, "and this is another reason why." Rasmussen said he'd rather see the BracketBusters moved to the beginning of the season, where projected top mid-majors could square off. But ESPN, he said, has plenty of programming in late November and early December.

There's been talk of moving a Valley conference game to mid-December, but Rasmussen said that most Valley schools aren't interested. They would rather do the four games in eight days. The good news for the players is, there won't be a lot of practice this week.

• Within hours of playing for the national championship on Monday night, Alabama offensive tackle Barrett Jones will fly to Omaha on Tuesday for Outland Trophy festivities. Hope he's hungry.

Bob Mancuso and sons will take the Outland winner to dinner Tuesday night at Pasta Amore. On Wednesday, Jones will attend the Downtown Rotary Club lunch (this year's Rotary retro Outland is Bobby Bell), then spend some time at Boys Town on Wednesday afternoon before hitting Omaha Prime for dinner.

Tickets for the Thursday night dinner at the downtown DoubleTree Hotel are available at 402-346-8003. Husker senior award winners Jared Crick, Lavonte David, Mike Caputo and Terrence Moore will also attend.

• They've been going at it since Oct. 1, or the same weekend as Nebraska-Wisconsin football. But this weekend feels like the season opener for UNO hockey. Maybe the second season.

Defending national champ Minnesota Duluth is in town. It's the beginning of a two-month final push through the WCHA, and all things UNO hockey will be on display. There's a UNO "Sell Out" promotion for Friday's game, which will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network; Saturday night's game will be televised statewide on NET. Can Dean Blais' kids grow up in time to make the Final Five this year? This week we begin to find out.

• Connie Yori has another team. I bypassed the first half of Tim Tebow and Big Ben Sunday to watch Nebraska play Iowa on the Big Ten Network. Jordan Hooper, Lindsey Moore and pals are a lot of fun to watch. Nobody expects another No. 1 seed this year, but this will be a team to watch the next two months.

All you need to watch from a Tebow game is the end, right? Are Bill Belichick and Tom Brady overconfident or nervous?

• Ethan Finlay didn't get the big prizes, finishing second in the Hermann Award and falling short at the College Cup. But his legacy for CU soccer is large. The program has been through a lot in recent years. Finlay helped see it through to a bright future.

• Nebraska had everything in place at Illinois. Full roster. Bruce Weber and the Illini looking flat at home. The last possession was a capsule of Husker Hoops. Set play but ball screen doesn't hold, off-balance long jumper off the mark. Intentional foul. Game over.

• Iowa State. Royce White. Wow. In Fred Hoiberg's second year? Looks like a nice hire, right, Cyclone fans?

• What did Penn State fans expect? What did LaVar Arrington expect? The job was radioactive. All this talk about the Penn State Way. The Penn State Way is the reason they're in this mess. And while Tom Bradley is a good man, they had to clean house. Live with Bill O'Brien. He'll either work out or he won't, then with some distance between this year, they might be able to get some big names interested. The job will be good again. Just not now.

• Here's a leftover note from my conversation with Nebraska defensive coordinator John Papuchis. His father works at the Pentagon for the Army Air Defense.

Papuchis recalled speaking to his father on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I had just been hired at Kansas," Papuchis said. "We were having our morning staff meeting. After the first plane hit the towers, I called him to see what the buzz was around the Pentagon. I remember like it was yesterday.

"I was on the phone with him when the second plane hit the towers and he said he had to go. I asked him before he got off the phone if whatever this was would ever attack Washington, D.C. He said, 'No way.'"

"I hung up the phone and went to the staff meeting. The staff meeting lasted only 15 minutes because obviously people were shaken by what was happening. I got out of the staff meeting and looked at my TV and the Pentagon was on fire.

"That was scary. Knowing the geography, knowing the building, it was his side of the building that was on fire. And communications were down for several hours. I went until 2 in the afternoon not knowing if he was alive or not. My stepmother called and told me he was OK."

• I used to give out a high five every week. That's so outdated. How about a fist bump? To Craig Bohl, run out of Lincoln almost 10 years ago, for winning a national championship as North Dakota State head coach. Good for him, and Frank Solich, for rebounding and remaking their careers. Bohl got some respect back. He deserves it.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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