College Football

College football fans who were willing to pay to watch the Nov. 16 Penn State-Notre Dame game on television can save their $9.95 for something else. ABC Sports announced yesterday that its plan to offer the game to about half the country on a pay-per-view basis had been abandoned. "We were told that it was called off because of technical problems," Penn State athletic director Jim Tarman said yesterday. "ABC felt that they couldn't do a very good job with such a short time frame.

Like Christmas sales and shortened days, the Army-Navy game is an early December fixture. The colorful event, to be contested for the 109th time this afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, has been played in all but five of the last 100 Decembers. World War I canceled it in 1917 and 1918. The 1928 and 1929 games never took place because of institutional disagreements over eligibility rules. In each of those cases, however, it was understood that the annual football meeting of military academies one day would be resumed.

The Inquirer previews the 2007 college football season, starting with a series on the area's Heisman hopefuls: The senior linebacker remembers playing Pop Warner in Wallingford, Delaware County. The senior quarterback was lightly recruited at Penn Charter. The former Conwell-Egan star running back, now a junior, also drew little interest. WEDNESDAY, RAY RICE, RUTGERS: The junior running back makes it a trio.

Some time soon, perhaps within a few days, Eric Ramsey, a former Auburn University football player, will spin some tapes in public that could shake the foundation of college football. Ramsey has apparently taped more than 100 hours of conversations with Auburn coaches, alumni and even the head coach Pat Dye. They catalogue more violations concerning his own wages and working conditions than the National Collegiate Athletic Association can shake a stick at (But, rest assured, the NCAA will find a bigger stick)

WASHINGTON - College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead. A committee of university presidents on Tuesday approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to start in two years. "A four team playoff doesn't go too far," Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger said. "It goes just the right amount. " The move completes a six-month process for the commissioners, who have been working on a new way to determine a major college football champion after years of griping from fans.

The latest in college football scandals is now emerging in Chicago where a grand jury is investigating agents who signed athletes to professional contracts while the athletes were still in school by offering money (and possibly other emoluments). The theme of corruption and college athletics is hardly a new one. Last fall the big story was payments to athletes at Southern Methodist University, a scandal so large that it resulted in the cancellation of the school's 1987 season. The year before that the University of Georgia lost a lawsuit filed by a faculty member fired for refusing to give football players undeserved passing grades in their remedial reading classes.

What if academic football ended its season each year on Thanksgiving weekend? Academic football? That's the fall sport which is neither professional nor commercial; it is part of the educational experience available to participants and observers under the auspices of accredited academic institutions. It is also called college football. If academic football ceased at the end of November, student-athletes and student-fans would have more time for study - a consummation devoutly to be wished by those whose primary concern is the academic welfare of an entire student body.

Pigskin Tidbits Biggest waste of money in college football Not an easy award to win, but the University of Oregon comes through with its $250,000 billboard in midtown Manhattan, paid for by boosters, proclaiming, "We're Back!" This after Oregon QB Joey Harrington was draped on a building across the street from Madison Square Garden all last season. Best spoof Iowa State produced brochures with banners of quarterback Seneca Wallace hanging from the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Sphinx.

WHEN WAYNE Hardin was a sophomore halfback/quarterback at Pacific in 1946 he played for Amos Alonzo Stagg, who went into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and coach in the charter class of 1951. Now, the man who became the winningest football coach in Temple history will soon join him. "How many people ever get to say that?" the 86-years-young Hardin asked yesterday from Florida, where he spends his time with his wife Jane when they're not at home in Oreland.

It's in the locker room where Imhotep Charter's DeAndre Scott said he zones out before games and blocks out everything that doesn't have to do with football. On Friday, Scott visited the locker room where he could play college football, as he made an unofficial visit to Penn State. The area's top junior defensive back tried on a pair of Nittany Lions jerseys, in both blue and white, emblazoned with his No. 5. "It was wonderful," Scott said. Along with Penn State, Scott has about a dozen scholarship offers, including from Arizona State, Central Florida, Pittsburgh, Temple, Virginia, and West Virginia.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - When Penn State running backs coach Charles London recruits in Ohio, he sees a startling trend. "A lot of these kids from Ohio, they don't know guys from Ohio even go to Penn State," London said Wednesday. "They think they all go to Ohio State. " The names Ki-Jana Carter (Westerville), O.J. McDuffie (Marion), and Michael Zordich (Youngstown) don't ring a bell? Apparently not. Bill O'Brien cemented his first recruiting class at Penn State on Wednesday, inking 17 players, including five-star quarterback Christian Hackenberg.

INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan is the national leader in college football attendance for the 15th straight year, and, according to a release from the athletic department, Penn State ranked fifth in attendance last season of all NCAA teams, with an average of 96,730 fans per game. According to the NCAA, the Southeastern Conference went over seven million in total attendance for the first time after expanding from 12 to 14 teams. The NCAA said Thursday that almost 49 million fans attended games in all divisions in 2012-13.

Alabama. Ohio State. Michigan. Florida. Notre Dame. Mississippi? Ole Miss muscled in on the powerhouses Wednesday, landing some of the most sought-after college football prospects in the country on national signing day. The Rebels, coming off a promising, 7-6 season in their first season under coach Hugh Freeze, had the experts swooning by signing three of the bluest chips still on the board and building a well-rounded class. The day started with defensive end Robert Nkemdiche from Loganville, Ga., rated the No. 1 recruit in the country by just about everyone who ranks them, deciding to join his brother, Denzel, in Oxford, Miss.

The beautiful and terrifying thing about Chip Kelly is this: Nobody knows if he will soar or flop in the National Football League. Nobody. Not Jeff Lurie, not Howie Roseman, not even Kelly. Especially not Kelly. By hiring the latest offensive genius from the college ranks, Lurie has turned his franchise into a laboratory. What we'll all be watching for the next few years will be as much an experiment as a football team. It could be fantastic and entertaining and lead, finally, to a Super Bowl title.

The Eagles are still scouring the college football ranks to find their next head coach. The latest big name on the team's radar is Brian Kelly. The Eagles are interested in the 51-year-old Notre Dame coach, two NFL sources said. They interviewed him after the BCS championship game and plan to meet with Kelly again when he returns from a trip. Kelly recently said that coaching the Fighting Irish was his dream job, and that "leaving is not an option. " But he didn't close the door on making the jump to the NFL when he was asked again about the possibility last week.

SEVEN FOOTBALL players have enrolled at Penn State for the spring semester, which means they can participate in spring practice. Cedar Cliff High's Adam Breneman, widely considered the top tight end prospect in the country, was joined by running back Richy Anderson (Frederick, Md.), quarterback Tyler Ferguson (Visalia, Calif.), defensive back Anthony Smith (Randolph, N.J.), defensive back Jordan Smith (Washington), quarterback D.J. Crook (Worcester Academy/West Barnstable, Mass.)

BASKETBALL RULES, regarding backcourts, do not state that small guys must play the point and taller guys have to station themselves on the wing. Good thing, or Lansdale Catholic High would be in major violation. Enough to be brought up on criminal charges. The wing guard, Andrew Riviello, if we want to be generous, is roughly 5-8. And there, directing the show, standing more than a half-foot taller at 6-3, is Brian Rafferty. "I've always been a point guard," he said, simply.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Barrett Jones was definitely not going there. Alabama's all-American offensive lineman has spent five seasons with coach Nick Saban and he knows better than to talk about stuff like legacies and the Crimson Tide's place in history. "Do you know what would happen if Nick Saban watched this interview and heard me say the D word?" Jones told a reporter who tried to lure him into the forbidden zone. The D word would be dynasty and it is definitely off-limits around Alabama.