Other than the addition of a 12th game, the NCAA also is considering another major change to college football for next season: adding a fifth year of eligibility.
In the current system, players must redshirt a season to spend five years at a university. But with the proposed revision, student-athletes could avoid sitting out for a season and begin contributing to the team their freshman season.
As with adding another game, there’s controversy surrounding this new adjustment, which will be formally decided on over the offseason.
Some Big Ten coaches see a fifth year of eligibility as a welcome complement to the 12th game. Ohio State’s coach Jim Tressel said he is in favor of both and said he believes if one measure passes, the other will too.
“I think (a fifth year of eligibility) will make our graduation rates even better, I think it’ll make the maturity of our teams even better and in a 12-game schedule, I think it’ll allow us to have some of those young kids in there,” he said. “Those kids have matured to the point where they’re contributing good things in the locker room, on the campus and on the practice field.”
Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo said he has not completely made up his mind on the issue but is leaning against it. But he also said having players with a fifth year of eligibility would change the way he plays his freshmen.
“There’s times now when I’m torn, especially as a coach trying to build a program,” DiNardo said. “I’ve got a handful of guys that I would play right now that would help us during the season. But I think I’m perhaps not being fair to that student-athlete because he could be a much better player four years from now.
“So do you make a decision based strictly on right now or do you make a decision based on what’s best for that student-athlete and the entire program?”
SPREADIN’ IT OUT
Not every team can recruit the best players at every position. To counteract the skill of the top teams in the Big Ten, the conference’s lower echelon teams began to employ the spread offense many years ago.
The offense allows less-skilled teams to minimize their disadvantages by spreading the opponent across the field.
“I think there’s a lot of merit to it,” DiNardo said. “If you spread everyone out, then everyone’s ability is not a factor on every single play.”
One of the pioneers of the spread in the Big Ten was, and still is, Purdue coach Joe Tiller. Boilermakers’ quarterbacks have run up gaudy passing numbers for many years, including Kyle Orton this season.
“They have influenced offensive football in the Big Ten,” Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. “They don’t worry about down and distance.”
Carr said he originally questioned if a team could be successful if its defense faced only the spread offense every day in practice.
But the Boilermakers rank second in the conference in scoring defense, allowing their opponents only 13.2 points per game.
“They have proven that you can play great defense (utilizing a spread offense),” Carr said.
WHO’S THE MAN?
After receiving ineffective play from starting quarterback Jon Beutjer for two straight weeks, Illinois coach Ron Turner has opened a competition for the quarterback position. Beutjer, sophomore Chris Pazan and redshirt freshman Brad Bower will compete for the starting spot this week in practice.
Beutjer leads the pack statistically with 770 yards on 72-of-118 passing in five games, while Bower is 24 of 43 with 321 yards in four games and Pazan is 12 of 21 with 115 yards in two games.
“Obviously the ideal situation is you’d like to have the quarterback set in place and know who it’s going to be and not change,” Turner said. “But unfortunately that’s not the case, so now we’ll go out and see who executes the game plan the best.”
Reach Zach Silka at [email protected].
POWER POLL: freshman EDITION
1. Purdue (5-0): Declaring for the NFL Draft
2. Michigan (5-1): Henne and Hart aren’t normal frosh
3. Wisconsin (6-0): Hooked up at Delt
4. Minnesota (5-1): Threesomes are better than twosomes
5. Iowa (3-2): Went home last weekend
6. NU (3-3): Midterms are coming
7. Ohio State (3-2): Partying during Reading Week
8. Michigan State (3-3): Taking orgo and in HPME
9. Penn State (2-4): Got beat up by a senior
10. Indiana (2-4): Dropped its fourth class
11. Illinois (2-4): Made up a hate crime
RUSHING CAR YDS AVG YPG
Maroney, Minnesota 117 815 7.0 135.8
Herron, NU 136 672 4.9 112.0
Barber III, Minnesota 119 642 5.4 107.0
Thomas, Illinois 69 505 7.3 84.2
Hart, Michigan 114 496 4.4 82.7
Green-Ellis, Indiana 141 450 3.2 75.0
passing att cp yds TD RTG
Orton, Purdue 172 119 1642 18 181.6
Cupito, Minnesota 116 60 1051 8 148.9
Henne, Michigan 184 116 1424 11 140.2
Tate, Iowa 131 86 1010 6 136.4
Beutjer, Illinois 118 72 770 5 129.8
LoVecchio, Indiana 147 79 1049 9 127.1
RECEIVING REC YDS AVG YPG
Edwards, Michigan 50 763 15.3 127.2
Stubblefield, Purdue 35 568 16.2 113.6
Roby, Indiana 34 592 17.4 98.7
Holmes, Ohio State 29 464 16.0 92.8
Philmore, NU 45 533 11.8 88.8
Jones, Illinois 25 434 17.4 72.3
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS YDS YPG
Orton, Purdue 205 1704 340.8
Basanez, NU 291 1736 289.3
Henne, Michigan 214 1357 226.2
Stanton, Michigan State 168 1087 217.4
LoVecchio, Indiana 201 1184 197.3
scoring GMS PTS PPG
Stubblefield, Purdue 5 66 13.2
Herron, NU 6 54 9.0
Edwards, Michigan 6 48 8.0
Barber III, Minnesota 6 48 8.0
Stanton, Michigan St. 5 30 6.0
