McCollum's Column: Appetizers: From championship sites to coaching roller-coaster

Serving some pre-Thanksgiving appetizers, assorted musings on the sports scene:

The NCAA FCS championship.

It’s not a great surprise that the University of Central Arkansas, which submitted a bid on behalf of the Little Rock advertising and tourism officials and War Memorial Stadium to host the 2010-2012 Football Championship Subdivision title game, did not make the final cut.

Reports were that NCAA officials were wary at the outset of the bid because War Memorial Stadium was a larger facility than they wanted because the title game realistically draws between 20,000 and 25,000. Little Rock offered a nice location but, aside from UCA’s regular following, Division I FCS football has little impact and exposure in the state. And Arkansas has a longstanding reputation of showing limited support for anything that doesn’t have the Razorback label.

Frisco, Texas — with a nice, medium-sized modern stadium and park area and with the backing of the Southland Conference (which carries clout in FCS circles) was the favorite going in from my perspective. Frisco offers the location, the facilities and the type of suburban setting that can take real ownership of the event.

To an Olympic comparison, going into the bidding Little Rock was Chicago and Frisco is Rio.

High school seeding

Arkansas Activities Association officials seem to be doing the logical thing about seeding the playoffs next year for the new 7A/6A setup among the largest 32 schools. The classifications will be combined for conference play, then separated into an upper division/lower division for the playoffs.

7A-West and 6A-South have no mixture of teams so those seedings will be done by conference standings. 7A-Central and 6A-East will be seeded according to a power-rating system based on conference victories plus victories by the team one beats.

It’s not perfect to put everything in the inner-workings of a computer, but it’s the best and fairest that could be done.

The scramble

UCA officials say one of the most exciting aspects of the Bears’ game against the University of Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse was watching the students scramble for seating two hours before the game.

Student seating is open, first-come, first-serve. Officials open the doors at 5 p.m. and get out of the way. The students make a mad dash for their preferred seating. Some going alongside the floor and up. Some go up high and go down. Each student apparently has made a strategic plan to get to his seat and the scene is like a colony of ants after honey.

It takes about eight minutes to fill the student section.

Miles

What happened in the final moments of the LSU-Ole Miss game, where LSU coach Les Miles and his staff had a total meltdown, on time management, is already becoming a internet classic on how not to finish a game, then a coach awkwardly try to cover things up. The YouTube segment is captivating in the manner it brought normally composed broadcaster Verne Lundquist to a crescendo as he shouts, “What are they doing? What are they doing?”

Coaches

How perspective changes. Three years ago, Rich Rodriguez and Les Miles were two of the hot coaches in college football and Charlie Weis was thought to be “the man” for Notre Dame after a highly successful tenure as offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.

Now, all three are in hot water. Weiss is most likely gone. Rodriguez and Miles will likely survive this year but are on a short leash.

Heisman

The race for the Heisman Trophy is as muddled as I’ve ever seen it. As a voter, I cannot tell you right now even who my top three candidates are and that’s never happened at this stage.

Some UA fans have asked about Ryan Mallett. He’s a late-comer and is still a bit off the radar nationally. The main question about Mallett is he hasn’t had a great “Heismanish” game against a highly rated team. Big games against Troy and Mississippi State don’t count except maybe to put one on the radar for next year. The thing many voters will look at is Mallett didn’t get it done against Alabama or Ole Miss and was up-and-down against Florida.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)