There were bowl scenarios for Notre Dame beating Southern Cal and for Southern Cal beating Notre Dame. There were bowl scenarios for Florida beating Florida State and for Florida State beating Florida. Nobody counted on those two games ending in ties, however, so a good deal of the postseason picture remained hazy last night.

Even with the 6-4-1 record the Fighting Irish have after their 17-17 tie with the Trojans on Saturday night in Los Angeles, they were regarded as a strong favorite for the Cotton or Fiesta bowls. In the Cotton, they would play the Southwest Conference representative, unranked Texas Tech, whose 6-5 record barely qualified it. The 31-31 shootout between Florida and Florida State Saturday afternoon added another bowl wrinkle. If Alabama beats Florida on Saturday in the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta, Florida State almost certainly will accept a bid to play the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. However, the tie between the Seminoles and the Gators has created interest in a possible rematch, which could occur only if Florida wins the SEC title to get the Sugar Bowl bid.

In the polls released yesterday, the only unbeaten teams - Nebraska, Penn State and Alabama - remained one, two, three once more. Nebraska and Penn State are idle until the bowls. Miami moved up to fourth in both the Associated Press media and USA Today/CNN coaches' polls. Florida dropped two places, to sixth in both polls, after allowing 28 fourth-quarter points and being tied by Florida State. The Seminoles remained seventh in both polls.