Blue White Illustrated

2 0 1 8 K I C K O F F S P E C I A L are fewer games than in any major Amer- ican spectator sport, and the relatively small sample size means that much of the action in any given season will take place away from the field, in the places where opinions are expressed, numbers are crunched and votes are taken. In college basketball, the annual complaints over NCAA selection committee snubs always die down as soon as the games start, be- cause nobody really believes that a poten- tial national champion was left out of the tournament field. That's not the case in college football. Even if the CFP field were doubled, two top-10 teams would be left out. Penn State would have been the first team out last year, and it's not hard to imagine the Lions making a run at the title given how well their offense was op- erating at the end of the season. So maybe an expanded playoff isn't the answer, at least for now. If we're going to be leaving out some very good teams no matter what, maybe it's best to simply re- fine the selection criteria, accept the lim- itations of the format and avoid extending a season that is already stretching well into January. That's Franklin's argument, and he is eager to see such measures put in place. "Probably the biggest challenge with the system that we're in is that it's sub- jective," he said. "And I think whenever you have a subjective system like we do, you want to control as many of the vari- ables as you possibly can." ■ Comcast at odds with BTN over new agreement The Big Ten Network could disap- pear from Comcast just as the college football season is starting, network president Mark Silverman said last month at the conference's media sum- mit in Chicago. A 10-year agree- ment set to expire at the end of Au- gust between the network and the cable provider has not been renewed, and Silverman said negotiations are not going well. Comcast has al- ready dropped BTN in areas outside the Big Ten footprint, and the possibility that the cable provider could stop air- ing BTN and black out Big Ten games on FS1 beginning Sept. 1 is a matter of great concern, Silverman said. "Unfortunately, my fear is the re- moval of BTN in the outer market may just be the :rst step in Comcast's plan to remove BTN from their systems everywhere, including the Big Ten home markets," he said. "As a result, we believe BTN and those Big Ten games that are on FS1 are in danger of not being carried on Comcast this coming season. So we are letting peo- ple know this to alert Comcast sub- scribers of this real possibility they may lose these games." Penn State athletic director Sandy 18 tackles for loss. He thought hard about leaving for the NFL, where he is considered a better prospect as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense than as a defensive end, but he chose to return for his senior year. In his :rst three seasons, Winovich totaled 29 tack- les for loss, 15 sacks and three forced fumbles. He should add sub- stantially to those totals while working to enhance his dra= standing this fall. 5 PADDY FISHER ILB NORTH- WESTERN A three-star prospect from Katy, Texas, Fisher was a reve- lation for the Wildcats last season. The 6-4, 245-pound inside line- backer had 113 tackles, the fourth-most in the Big Ten and the most by any freshman in the FBS. He also forced a con- ference-leading four fumbles en route to winning Big Ten Freshman Defensive Player of the Year honors. Fisher has three more seasons of eligi- bility remaining, so you would have to think that a lot of Northwestern defensive records are in jeopardy. ■ RASHAN GARY Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog SILVERMAN BY NATE BAUER nbauer@bluewhiteonline.com

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