Scorecard

RAISING 'CANES

In case you missed it, the University of Miami football team, which beat Texas 46-3 in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day, behaved very badly during the game. The Hurricanes were penalized a Cotton Bowl -record 202 yards—10 times for either personal fouls or unsportsmanlike conduct. And their taunting victory dance at the end of the game was a further embarrassment.

In fairness, though, the Hurricanes had every reason to be exuberant. After all, for the first time in four consecutive postseason appearances, they lasted through an entire bowl week without having a player suspended from the team for disciplinary reasons.

PRO AND CON

The debate over whether or not there should be a postseason playoff in college football intensified last week with the split vote for No. 1 by AP (the media said Colorado was the national champion) and UPI (the coaches said Georgia Tech ). You're probably tired of the arguments already, but here are two more, one for a postseason tournament and one against.

On the pro-playoff side, consider the delicious possibilities if such a system had been in effect this season. Because of its superior record, Georgia Tech would receive a bye this week, while Miami would play Colorado in Boulder. The winner of that game would then travel to Atlanta the next week to play Tech for the undisputed championship of college football.

Then again, there's something to be said for the current system. Invoking the time demands of entertaining two No. 1 teams, the White House declined to invite either Colorado or Georgia Tech to visit. That means we'll all be spared those tedious publicity shots of the President meeting in the Rose Garden with the team of the moment.

PIGSKIN LATIN

Contrary' to popular belief, Latin is not a dead language. In fact, it's alive and well and riding the best-seller lists in the form of Latin for All Occasions, a lingua-in-bucca book by Henry Beard on how to spice up your conversation with Latin phrases. "Hot enough for you?" for instance, would be "Satine caloris tibi est?" Or if you want to say, "My favorite! Tuna casserole!" why that's "Mea dilectissima! Farrago thunni!"

There are quite a few phrases in the book for sports fans who want to be taken seriously. Let's say you're at a baseball game between the Icteri Galbuli ( Orioles ) and the Fermentatores (Brewers), and you want to complain about the designated hitter rule. You turn to your companion and say, "Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est."