OCR Text |
Show C SUNDAY The Halt Lake Tribune . | , OR Juty 27, 2003 , WWW .SLTRIB.COM GIANTS’ SCHMIDT ONE OF BASEBALL'S BEST POLE BACHLEDA WINS CONTINENTAL CUP EVENT stijumping, C5 WASATCH VILDFLONER FESTIVAL NEXT WEEKEND Baseball, C10-I Outdoors, Cl Gorpon Monson Modern-day Quixote fights BCS or a guy who has almost no connection to the state of Utah, who grew up in middle class New Jersey, played football at UConn, joined the military for a stint before opening the throttle ona careerin education, Scott Cowen is quickly and quite serendipitously and surprisingly becoming a folk hero around here. Heis the man, maybe the lone dreamer,a self-described pragmatist at that, who probablyis surprising himself, too,by riding his steed full bore ahead,jousting with windmills. Taking on the powerful, the greedy, and the corrupt. Righting a major wrong. Trying to do what nobody heretofore has had the wherewithal or, more aptly put, the nards,to do: Gore the BCSin the keister. So it’s not preserving freedom or world peace.Still, to frustrated football fans here,the cause is noble enough. “I believe,”he says,“we have right on our side.” Cowenis the president ofTulane University. He's also a revolutionary whois mustering support among non-BCSschools,forming a coalition of presidents,to fight what he sees as an improper and unjust wayofnot only determining a national championin college football, butof distributing fundsfor athlet- Lavnent Rosouns/TheArwoiatePross Lance Armstrong strainsin thefinal yards of the 19th stage of the Tour de France, a 30.4-mile individualtime trial between Pornic and Nantesin western France. is. The formeris concocted,thelatter avaricious and misguided, All but He wants to scrap the BCS bow! system, which annually rewards teamsfrom selected conferences with stacks of cash and punishes teams from outside leagues by preventing them from playing in the bowls and sharing in theprofits. “My ultimate dream is to get a 16team playoff, so we can havea level playingfield,” Cowensays. “That wouldbe a giantstep forward. It Lance Armstrong increased his lead Saturday ever Germany's JanUllrich by another 11 secondsand is maytakefive to seven years to get it done. We would haveto cut the regu- expected to become the second rider to win five straight Tour lar season backto 10 games, maybe 11, including conference championships. Then, every Division I-A league wouldgeta schoolin, just like wedoin virtually every other titles, Peren Desona/TheAssociated Prose sport.” Along with at-large berths. “Education is about gaining ac- cess,” Cowensays.“In this one sector, Division 1-A football, we violate that. When some coaches haveto tell their players atthestart of the sea- Armstrongsettojoin ‘the club’ today withhis 5th straight win in Paris son, ‘By the way, you havenoshot at a national championship,’ that’s not right.” By Joun LEICESTER TheAssociated Press accolade Armstrong's been after since he be- way througha biased,easily rigged, NANTES, France Lance Armstrong climbedthe podium to receive a bouquet of flowers andthefresh yellow jerseysignifying gan cycling: “Welcome to the club,” the Frenchmansaid. It truly is an exclusive group just four menhavewonthe Tourfive times until now and Armstrongissettojoin. exclusionary poll to a No. 6 ranking to qualify for any BCS bowl, he says just onestage left. his rivalfell during a dramatic time trial Notonly does Cowenscoff at the currentsetup,in which teams from non-BCS leagues have to wendtheir his overall lead in the Tour de France with “In football,”he says,“it’s tough title and a place in cycling’s pantheon. Armstrong alreadyvowedthathe will be back next year to chas Sixth win inthe sport Hefinished Us ad of challenger _Staying steady onrain-slickedroads while Jan Ullrich in Saturday's 19th stage,stretch Right then, five-time race champion Ber- Saturday, the31-year-old Texan pretty much nard Hinault leaned over and delivered the assured himself of a record-tying fifth the entire system causes a rippleeffect harmful to those programs. straight !98 his lead in the overall standings to 1 "™inute, 16 seconds enough to assure V!tory. , a See TOUR, C15 to recruit because players want that shotat a national championship, andit’s tough to keep coaches because they want to moveup.It impacts other sports, too. “Tlookatschools like BYU, Marshall, and Tulane, when we were 11.0 in 1998, and wedidn’t have a shot. BYU, when they were 12-0 two years ago, and [were] told, ‘No.’ It’s a violation of what's right.” Since he began his call for change, Cowen,a straight-talking, non-political administrator, says he’s received more letters and emails from Utah than from any other state. “People out there send all kinds of ideas, some of which I use in my comments,” he says. “They seem to be outraged and willing to support a grass-roots move- ment.” In coming months, Cowen will meet, alongside other non-BCS presidents, with presidents from BCS schools to voice concerns. A Septem- ber meeting in Chicago will be at tended by NCAA president Myles Brand Cowensays he will continue to push the causeforward, resorting to legal actiononly if he must, only if hothing changes. But,either way, the dreamer-pragmatic goes on, shouting at partially deaf ears, banging the drum,fighting the fight, bearing downontills of greed, and | ,, Windmills that turn slowiy SOP Moscow-Urtau YoutH GAMES SunpaySPECIAL From Russia, with love: Utah comes home USUreadyto stay in Sun Belt‘for a while’ Temporary permanence: Leagueaffiliation saved the Ags’ football program,but they knowit mightnot last By Lya Wopraska The Salt Lake Tribune MOSCOW erything is subject to change for The Moscow-Utah Youth Games officially cametoa close Saturday with a spectacle of dancing and singing that equaled the opening ceremonyofa week ago. Up next, Salt LakeCity. In January, the Russians will send ath sports including hockey, ski jumping and CacheValley Alpine skiing. ‘Theunusually warm temper- The official flag was passed to the Utah atures arenotlikely to return next winter, and Utah State's accepted by Utah athletes Dan Hutson and more loose,festiveaffair than the opening See YOUTH GAMES, C13 5 suggests that USUwill probably stayin the league longer than many Aggiefans believe and Golf courses were open in delegation during the ceremony, and was ceremony, with the athletes dancing and schools in the bottom half of DivisionI-A football. Yet he also NEW ORLEANS Anyquestion about whether a schoo! in Logan, Utah, belonged in the SunBelt Conferencewas clearly answeredin January. letes to Salt LakeCity to compete in winter Late monet, two of TeamUtah's gold medal winners, ‘The closing ceremony were a much The Salt Lake Tribune new conferenceaffiliationis not . eemn OOe. expected to last forever, either USU president Kermit L. Hall's Ae, ohation of thearrangement Utah water polo player Clay Winder sports a Russian fur cap with Utah and U.S. flags at the “permanent, for a while,” closing ceremony on Saturday. contradiction, knowing that ev , . Hall laughs at his apparent almostcertainly long enough to competein basketball and other sports in 2006-06, If the school’s membership in a New Orleans-based league seems strange, there is little doubt that joining the SunBelt saved the Aggie football pro- gram. USU will launch confer. enceplayin September. “Fromour vaeac ” said USU coach Mick Dennehy, “this is heavenly.” Ff See AGGIES, CLS | y |