This just in: The season doesn't start in the third week of August as previously advertised. The weekend of Aug. 16-17 should have plenty of football fireworks.

Too bad Alabama's and Kentucky's appeals to the NCAA won't be televised.

Both gut-punched programs will appear before the NCAA Appeals Committee that weekend regarding penalties handed out to their football programs earlier this year. Neither case is expected to be ruled on that weekend, but it's interesting the extent to which schools will go to protect football programs.

After seeing his program get blasted with a two-year bowl ban, Alabama athletic director Mal Moore immediately said the penalties were "unacceptable." The appeal process started then and there.

The rationales behind the appeals are different. Alabama considers the ban and the loss of 21 scholarships to be unfair to the state's biggest industry. It needs football like Rosie O'Donnell needs Twinkies. To counteract the letdown from this year's bowl ban, Alabama was close this week to announcing the addition of a 13th game at Hawaii in late November. The game was already being called Alabama's "bowl."

Kentucky is appealing its bowl ban this year but for more hidden reasons. Let's face it, Kentucky has virtually no chance of getting into a bowl this season. Even armed with all of his scholarships, Kentucky is, at best, a middle-of-the-road program. What's more valuable is the $1.5 million in SEC bowl revenue Kentucky would lose because it's ineligible for the postseason.

The money is worth protecting, even if Kentucky usually doesn't throw into the SEC bowl pot.

Kentucky is appealing the NCAA's assertion that the program enjoyed a "protracted and significant recruiting advantage" because of the cheating. Recruiting advantage? The Wildcats haven't won an outright SEC title since 1950 and have been to a grand total of three bowls since 1984.

We're only guessing, but it's seldom that two major-college football programs from the same league have appealed such major penalties on the same weekend. That raises the question of whether the NCAA has been more harsh lately with its penalties.

The 2002 season will start with a combined 23 Division I, I-A and I-AA schools on probation. Ten of those schools were penalized for wrongdoing in the football program.

Former NCAA enforcement chief David Berst (now chief of staff for Division I) once said he believed 15 percent of schools were cheating at any given time. If that's the case then, the NCAA is missing a heck of a lot of wrongdoers. The total of 32 schools currently on probation represent approximately 3 percent of the NCAA membership.

What is not measurable is the tenor of the times -- whether the NCAA is ramping up the severity of its penalties. The recent major offenders besides Alabama and Kentucky:

• Wisconsin lost 10 scholarships over two years in the infamous Shoe Box case. The NCAA decided that Wisconsin athletes were being given an improper discount by the owner of a popular local shoe store.
• Marshall will lose 15 scholarships over the next three years in a case centering on overpayment of nonqualifiers for jobs, academic fraud and lack of institutional control.
• Southern Cal was put on probation for two years in August 2001 and lost two scholarships in an academic fraud case that involved tutors.
• SMU was nailed again in December 2000 for a wide-ranging case involving a former assistant coach. The Mustangs lost eight scholarships each over the past two years in the probation that expires in December. It's significant because it made SMU the NCAA's all-time leader with eight major infractions cases. And, yes, SMU is once again eligible for the death penalty, until Dec. 13, 2005.

Current NCAA Infractions Committee chairman Tom Yeager seemed to set the current tone when he uttered this about Alabama in February.

"An unprecedented disgrace," Yeager said. "God forbid they ever have another appearance (before the committee), ever. ... They were absolutely staring down the barrel of a gun."

In other words, 'Bama just might have come the closest since 1987 to joining SMU on the endangered species list. In the past 13 years, only Oklahoma (1989), Mississippi (1994) and Alabama have suffered multiple-year bowl bans.

Such pointed language had never been used by an infractions committee chairman. Part of that might be a change of personalities. Former chairman Jack Friedenthal, a retired George Washington University law professor, retired in August. Yeager, the Colonial Athletic Association commissioner, had his "coming out" with the harsh comments during the conference call to announce the Alabama penalties.

Yeager, 50, is the first former NCAA staffer to chair the infractions committee. He started as enforcement officer in 1976 before working his way to director of legislative services. Yeager has been with the Colonial since 1984.

His reaction shouldn't be surprising, then. Given his background, he has seen more than enough cheating.

The penalty of choice seems to be scholarship reductions. TV bans, an old stand-by, penalized innocent parties and really had no effect on the program. Scholarship cuts damage it at its core.

Oklahoma State was hit in 1988 and has had one winning season since then. Oklahoma had scholarships taken away a year later. During a long drought, it endured its worst three-year record in history under John Blake before winning the 2000 national championship.

What lies ahead for Alabama and Kentucky is unknown. Certainly Alabama is in a better position to weather the scholarship losses than Kentucky. Its infrastructure should allow it to stay competitive with walk-ons and the remaining blue-chip recruits until the probation expires.

With a full roster of scholarships, Kentucky has had one winning season in the last 12. It could be heading for the purgatory that is currently occupied by SMU, which has had one winning season since the death penalty.

The 'Bama case touched off an offseason of recriminations that bordered on the hilarious. LSU is facing lawsuits by two instructors who alleged they were pressured to keep quiet about academic fraud. One sign that where there's smoke, there's fire: LSU quickly hired noted NCAA troubleshooter Mike Glazier to assist in its investigation.

Only in the South, where it seems the back-biting never subsides.

"When you throw mud, that mud sticks sometimes where you don't want it to stick," Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill said. "If you're the head coach at Florida and Florida State, the chances of you having dinner are not very good."

As the summer rolls around, SEC commissioner Roy Kramer is retiring and Mississippi chancellor Robert Khayat is suggesting the conference ought to start its own enforcement arm. Only one major conference, the Pac-10, polices its own schools. Most conferences don't want to enter the business of pitting brother against brother, but the time might have come in the SEC.

"I'm not concerned about the SEC's future," Khayat said. "I'm concerned about collegiate athletics imploding if we don't find ways to achieve some balance."

Meanwhile, the Wildcats have loaded up in trying to preserve their football program. The school has hired The Compliance Group out of Overland Park, Kan., to help in their appeal effort. The legal firm is run by former NCAA enforcement official Chuck Smart. He will be assisted by former infractions committee chair, David Swank, an Oklahoma law professor.

If that seems like the one-time prosecutors are now defenders, you're right. It doesn't end there. LSU's case (it's not yet an official investigation) is being handled by Glazier, largely regarded as the gold standard when it comes to troubleshooting NCAA problems. Glazier works for a law firm, also in the NCAA's former home of Overland Park.

Alabama and Kentucky's case will be heard by appeals committee chairman Mike Slive, commissioner of Conference USA. Slive and Glazier were once partners in a sports law firm that helped schools through NCAA investigations. Investigations, it should be noted, that were being conducted by Smart and his fellow enforcement officials at the time.

The question is not who's going to win; it's who is bringing the brownies?

Update on culling the I-A herd

The controversial NCAA legislation that would significantly increase I-A membership standards apparently is still being defined.

The criteria include more stringent attendance, scholarship and scheduling standards that have some of the smaller I-A programs concerned. But the NCAA has never said definitively what it would do if those programs don't meet the criteria by 2004.

During the WAC meetings, a high-ranking NCAA official told presidents ideas are being kicked around.

• At the end of the 2004 season, any school that doesn't meet the attendance requirement (15,000 per home game) would be put in what was called a "special category" for the 2005 season. What that restricted category would entail (can teams play in bowl games or receive conference revenue?) is not quite clear. But it amounts to a probation year that would allow programs to get their houses in order.
• If the standards aren't met by 2006, then a program would theoretically drop out of I-A. But that raises another set of questions: what to do with a school's conference affiliation. For example: Does the MAC keep playing Kent State in football if the Golden Flashes drop down? What about minor sports?

Those questions have yet to be answered, but there is some feeling that schools could move back and forth between I-A and a lower division.

It's good to know there might be some leeway. Potentially affected schools are talking big. But until the NCAA clears the air about this significant legislation, then there's always the chance that a few schools that have been playing football at the highest level for more than 100 years could be asked to leave.

Welcome to the Orange Bowl, Mr. Bonds

The Florida Marlins are poking around the possibility of moving to the Orange Bowl and sharing the facility with the University of Miami.

The Miami Herald quoted a source in Friday's editions saying that the Marlins would play in the ancient venue as a short-term solution while exploring sites for a new stadium.

Playing baseball in the Orange Bowl presents tremendous logistical problems, but the Marlins are unhappy with their current Pro Player Stadium lease, from which they get only a portion of parking and concessions. The lease runs through 2003.

The city of Miami already has committed $16 million for Orange Bowl improvements. But renovations for baseball would require dramatic changes in the legendary stadium. Most likely, seats would have to be ripped out to provide a baseball configuration.

Plus, there is the problem of working out September dates between the Marlins and Hurricanes.

Early indications from Miami city leaders are positive, even if the Marlins settle at the Orange Bowl for the short term. And renovations would definitely help the Hurricanes, who sometimes have better locker rooms on the road than they do at home.

Baseball, mostly of the national team variety, has been played at the Orange Bowl in the past.

No Western expansion

The biggest non-story of the offseason has been the Mountain West's non-intent to expand.

Let's explain.

The flames of expansion were mostly fanned without basis by a Fresno newspaper that was playing hometown advocate by trying to tie Fresno State and Hawaii of the WAC to the Mountain West Conference.

While neither conference is exactly raking the money in, the move might have killed the WAC. To say it would have enhanced the Mountain West at this point is a borderline lie. The three-year old league already has a modest seven-year, $48 million television deal with ABC that runs through 2005.

Why, it should be asked, would the Mountain West want add two more schools to divide that pot even further?

Don't look for things to change after 2005, when ABC and the Mountain West look to re-up to each other. The Mountain West is one of those non-equity leagues that doesn't have automatic qualification into the Bowl Championship Series.

In fact, there are those who feel that ABC overpaid for the Mountain West deal and that the conference won't see that kind of money in the next negotiation.

Adding Fresno became an immediate impossibility when the Mountain West presidents voted this week not to take non-qualifiers. Fresno State has built its program under Pat Hill with a load of non-qualifiers.

Non-qualifiers have neither the minimum grade-point average (2.0 out of high school) nor the minimum ACT or SAT scores.

The upside for a school like Fresno is a much broader recruiting base. The downside is probably a lower graduation rate and perhaps a character issue with recruits. To Fresno's credit, it has done a good job of recruiting and keeping non-qualifiers eligible.

The Mountain West became just the fourth I-A conference to ban non-qualifiers. The Pac-10, ACC and Big 12 previously had a conference-wide policy.

Seeing the success of those leagues (10 national championships since 1990) proves that the Mountain West can compete without dipping into the non-qualifier pool. And, if the Mountain West is ever considered for the BCS, then this move makes it more likely.

"Our presidents had been taking about this for about a year," said Carolyn Henry, the Mountain West's compliance officer. "It's something that just made sense to us."

More than made sense. Over the course of its three-year history, Mountain West schools have averaged fewer than one non-qualifier (actually .825) per year across all sports.

Oklahoma State's loss is Clemson's gain

Leaving one program in good shape, Terry Don Phillips will now attempt to enhance another as Clemson's new athletic director.

In Phillips' eight years at Oklahoma State, he pushed through a once-unthinkable expansion to Gallagher-Iba Arena. He leaves with plans are already in place to renovate Lewis Field, arguably the worst football venue in the Big 12.

For years, Oklahoma State had some of the worst major-college facilities in the country, but under him that began to change. He fired two football coaches and oversaw the program's only winning season (1997) in the past 13.

His gentle guidance through the January 2001 plane crash will forever be remembered in Stillwater.

At Clemson, football is in place. Death Valley is one of the country's best college football venues. The challenge will be basketball and other minor sports.

But make no mistake, football is not only the biggest sport but will be a tremendous pressure cooker. A winning season won't be good enough. And coach Tommy Bowden is hinting around at wanting curriculum changes that will help his players better matriculate through the system.

Quick hits

• Any question on the top two football conferences? This month the SEC and Big 12 both announced their distributions to member schools. The SEC paid out approximately $90 million and the Big 12 paid out $82.2 million. A large majority of that revenue comes from football.
• It's clear from Kramer's memo to BCS computer guys (sent by SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom) last month that he will remain the most powerful man in college sports, even in retirement. Kramer might be leaving at the end of his month, but his expertise will be tapped by commissioners, athletic directors and presidents for years to come.
• This one almost slipped by but is significant. The Big 12 has decided to put the conference office in charge of training and hiring clock operators at football games. Don't know if other leagues do this, but why wouldn't they considering the PR risks of not doing it?
• This Summer of the Felony took another tragic turn on Friday when it was reported prize Miami recruit Nate Harris had been charged with armed robbery. Police said Harris and another man robbed a victim of a necklace, bracelet and ring. Harris was charged when he was 15 with stealing clothes from a local mall and spent six months at an alternative school for troubled teens. As of Friday afternoon, Harris still had his scholarship. Miami coach Larry Coker said he was waiting for "more complete information" before making a decision.