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Feeding time

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Bryan Rosenbaum

It's that time of the year again, where the mighty collegiate football teams add a couple of wins to their schedules so they can go into their respective conference seasons in line for a Bowl Championship Series bid.

Akron at Penn State. Louisiana Tech at Florida State. Florida A&M at Miami (Fla.). James Madison at Virginia Tech. Western Michigan at Florida.

These may be some pretty bad match-ups, but the worst one of all is tomorrow night's Arizona-Middle Tennessee State game. The Blue Raiders finished 5-5 a year ago... in Division I-AA. They lost to Mississippi State last weekend 40-7, with its only touchdown coming on the last play of the game.

Nobody can blame MTSU for coming to Tucson for its first "high profile" game, but why is this team on Arizona's schedule in the first place? How can you possibly get the people of Tucson to come to this game?

It isn't like MTSU is the only weak game on the UA schedule- Texas-El Paso storms into town on Oct. 16. UA head coach Dick Tomey did something not many other coaches would have done by playing at Penn State in August, but Arizona must keep playing strong teams.

In the past couple years, Arizona has hosted Northeast Louisiana, Alabama-Birmingham, UTEP (twice), Pacific (twice, including a 16-13 squeaker in 1993 when UA was favored by 35) and New Mexico State, teams that aren't exactly resum­ builders.

Fortunately, athletic director Jim Livengood has cracked down on the cupcake schedules the football team has had recently. Livengood has focused more on playing Big Ten Conference teams and other more interesting non-conference opponents. Ohio State plays in Tucson next season, while the school is trying to negotiate with Colorado and Michigan for a home-and-home series in the next millennium.

Kansas State proved last year that big wins over small schools won't get you into a big bowl. Arizona could have followed the same path this year had they not scheduled Penn State, but even a 41-7 loss to the Nittany Lions could do more in the long run than a 41-7 win over MTSU.

If you want to be the best, you have to play the best. The men's basketball team will play probable preseason No. 1 Michigan State, defending national champion UConn, and possibly Kentucky and Ohio State if they advance in the Preseason NIT.

The football team started off the season against arguably the best team in the nation in Penn State, but showed they have a long way to go to prepare for a run for the Pacific 10 Conference crown. Tomey says that MTSU's fun-and-gun style will prepare them for the Pac-10, but let's be serious.