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Questions abound as season begins

Can Tuskegee repeat a perfect 12-0 season?

Is Grambling poised to win their first back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles since 1989?

Will Florida A&M's run of consecutive NCAA Div. I-AA playoff berths end at four?

And after eight years will the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) finally get a team in the NCAA Div. II playoffs?

These are a few of the questions desperately seeking answers as the 2001 black college football season gets underway this week. Games This Week

The answers to these and other such questions probably won't be known until sometime in mid-to-late November. None will be answered this week as the season kicks off with an abbreviated eight-game schedule, but you could get some ideas.

Winston-Salem State (0-0)

vs. Carson-Newman (0-0)

The two-time defending CIAA champion Rams of Winston-Salem State, the team picked by conference coaches to three-peat, will get the opportunity to strike the conference's first blow in their argument for a playoff berth when they open at home Saturday (6 p.m.) against perennial Div. II title contender, Carson-Newman.

The Eagles, of the South Atlantic Conference, finished 8-2 last season and were left out of the playoffs for the first time in 15 years by virtue of a 13-10 loss to conference rival, Catawba. CNU, under head coach Ken Sparks, was 10-0 in the 1999 regular season (13-1 overall) before losing in the Div. II title game. They also went undefeated (9-0) in the 1997 season before losing in the national semifinals. They enter the season ranked third in the South Region by D2football.com, an on-line site covering NCAA Div. II football. They are ranked in the region, behind defending national champion Delta State and Valdosta State, another 2000 playoff team, and just ahead of Tuskegee, the 2000 black college national champion.

If Kermit Blount's Rams are indeed the CIAA standard bearer, then their first two games could tell the playoff story. The Rams travel to face the highly regarded Golden Tigers of Tuskegee next week.

Albany State (0-0), picked by league coaches to finish behind Tuskegee in the SIAC, will have their hands full at powerful Valdosta State (7 p.m.). VSU all-American quarterback Dusty Bonner threw 54 TD passes last year while completing 73% of his passes for nearly 4,000 yards. VSU is ranked fifth nationally in one preseason poll.

Fort Valley knocked off Morehouse last year (27-12) to open the season. The "House," under Anthony Jones, went on to finish 8-3 overall, 5-2 in the SIAC and earn Jones the coach of the year award. Their battle this year in Griffin, Ga., (7 p.m.) could go a long way to determining the chief rival to Tuskegee.

© 2001 Azeez Communications, Inc.