Miami's impressive show left no doubt

The system to determine a national college football champion is certainly not perfect. Far from it. In fact, it's pretty bad.

But I don't think many people can argue that Miami doesn't deserve to end this season as the nation's No. 1 team.

Miami wound up as the only undefeated Division I-A squad and the Hurricanes dominated most of their opponents, including Nebraska in Thursday night's Rose Bowl.

Sure, Nebraska limped into the BCS title contest after having been blistered by Colorado 62-36 in its previous game. Most people said the Cornhuskers didn't deserve to be in Pasadena, Calif., and I can't say that I disagree.

Still, the whipping Miami put on Nebraska was mighty impressive. The Hurricanes led 34-0 at halftime and I'm sure the final score would have been much, much worse than 37-14 if Miami had stayed interested during the second half.

In today's football -- on any level -- you can't beat speed. And boy, did the Hurricanes have it all over the field. I know Nebraska's players are not slow, but against Miami they sure looked like it at virtually every position.

Even though Nebraska didn't put up much of a challenge, I don't think any other team -- with the possible exception of Florida, which could at least have come close to matching Miami's speed -- could have done much better on this night, and the Gators didn't belong there because they had already lost twice.

No question about it, Miami is definitely a deserving national champion. The Hurricanes proved all season they were the best and backed it up emphatically Thursday.

That being said, however, a playoff system would still be great. Maybe someday we'll have one.

Former Scott City High School basketball star Jon Beck is having by far the best stretch of his career at Arkansas State.

A junior guard who had seen only limited action during his ASU career, Beck is now being relied on for outside scoring after the Indians recently lost a key player to an injury.

And the sharp-shooting Beck has responded, coming through with performances of 23 and 20 points during two recent games. He has been a big reason why the Indians were 10-6 before Saturday.

Congratulations and good luck to Robert White, a 1994 Jackson High School graduate who was recently named the head baseball coach at Dyersburg State, a junior college in Tennessee.

White spent the last four years as an assistant coach at Harris-Stowe College in St. Louis.

New Madrid County Central's sensational senior guard Dereke Tipler was recently named a McDonald's All-American candidate.

Although it's doubtful Tipler will be among the 20 players selected for the prestigious McDonald's All-American Game, just to make the candidate's list is quite an honor.

Dallas Lincoln, ranked in virtually every poll as one of the nation's top five prep basketball teams, is coached by SEMO graduate Leonard Bishop, who played for the Indians from 1972-74.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian