News From The Sports World

The first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy is Tim Tebow of Florida. He was crowned the latest Heisman winner in New York last night in a ceremony that was carried live on ESPN.

The Gainesville Sun says Tebow is "tightening his grip on history."

But you didn't have to be in New York to make sports news -- or to be speculating on it.

* Barry Tramel writes, in The Oklahoman, that a four-team playoff in college football is "possible" in the near future. Four teams, he says, is about as many as you can expect.

His column today, however, points out that a playoff in college football is not a new idea. Such a proposal was brought before the NCAA convention more than 30 years ago. There was little discussion and the proposal was dismissed. And, in the 1990s, Division I-A voted heavily against a playoff proposal.

But Tramel contends that the current BCS "has the structure to expand its playoff from two to four teams. When the current Fox television contracts expire in 2011, the BCS bowls could establish a four-team playoff with no major reconstruction."

Meanwhile, Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star says forget it, a playoff system won't succeed in college football.

Who's right?

* In pro football, the teams are marching steadily toward their playoffs. Most of today's games have been played and we're getting a clearer picture of who will be in the playoffs -- in the NFC, anyway.

In the NFC, three teams clinched division championships today -- Dallas, Green Bay and Seattle. Tampa Bay could have clinched the fourth and final division title, but lost its game to Houston.

Things are a little more unsettled n the AFC, where it's been a given for most of the season that New England, still undefeated at 13-0, would be in the playoffs. The Patriots are playing against history these days. The Steelers, Colts and Chargers are close to clinching their divisions, but they haven't done so yet.

* Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News looks at what he calls college football's "coaching carousel."

He says Michigan has plenty of options left, but the other schools that are looking for new coaches may not find much to address their needs.

Many of those schools, Dienhart says, may have to hire assistant coaches rather than guys with experience as a head coach.

The prospect he mentions that intrigues me, as a graduate of the University of Arkansas, is East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, the son of Lou Holtz. If Skip Holtz is being mentioned as a possible coach at Arkansas, as Dienhart implies, he would be a candidate for his father's old job.

Lou Holtz was coaching the football team when I was a student there. And Skip was a student at Fayetteville High School with my brother.