Scorecard

At least one season ticket-holder of the Los Angeles Rams, still unhappy about having to lay out money for two exhibition games as well as the eight regular home games—take it or leave it, buddy—is upset again, because now he must shell out an additional $12 for an 11th game in Los Angeles, the Pro Bowl, a dreary postseason affair that has little to do with Rams football.

When asked if this was not a bit greedy, the NFL office explained that the same conditions applied for Tampa Bay and Seattle fans, where the Pro Bowl was held the past two years. What is happening is that the Pro Bowl is being rotated among warm-weather or enclosed-arena sites—and by NFL policy added to the season-ticket bite.

RATING RECRUITERS

Every football fan knows how the pros do in the draft, but Joe Terranova of Dearborn, Mich. keeps an eye on how colleges do in recruiting. Terranova is a marketing researcher for the Ford Motor Co., and for kicks he keeps in touch with recruiters across the country and watches more than 500 high school game films a year.

For each of the past three years, Terranova has written a story for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. on which colleges land the top football prospects, and last week he offered his 1978 coast-to-coast rundown.

Southern Cal rates No. 1 in recruiting, which is not unusual. The Trojans cleaned up on quarterbacks. They got George Ponce, "the best prep QB in Southern California," plus Scott Tinsley, "the top quarterback in Oklahoma," who passed for nearly 4,000 yards in high school. What's more, Terranova says, "USC's interior line picks could play Tampa Bay to a standoff."

Texas is second in Terranova's ratings. The Longhorns' A. J. Jones, of Youngstown, Ohio, is the "best running back in the country," and Rod Tate is "a super flyer smuggled out of Beggs, Okla."

Other ratings:

3. Tennessee: "The last time a land army the size and quality of Tennessee's was assembled, the Allies hit the beach at Anzio."

4. Penn State: "It is rumored [Linebacker Chet] Parlavecchio [from South Orange, N.J.] once challenged a school of piranhas to a game of water polo and won."