As Sam Sees It<br>

There is still time to get your tax credit donation to the Winslow school of your choice and qualify for a refund on your 2002 Arizona State income tax. You can give up to $250 to a public school and even designate within certain guidelines how that money will be used.

That tax credit may be used to pay any income tax you owe the state of Arizona. The deadline for giving a donation that can be claimed on your 2002 tax return is Jan. 15, 2003. In reality, this means you are able to designate where and how $250 of the taxes you pay will be spent.

If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, the state will require you to actually pay the $250 you owe and could have donated to the school of your choice. That money may then be wasted on some less worthy project.

Join me in seeing that the local public schools benefit from the taxes you would pay any way. You can bet that more affluent communities than Winslow are taking advantage of this program.

It is time to revisit the possibility of play-off games for the now mythical NCAA Football Championship. In the past, the NCAA has used the argument that such a system would mean too many games and too much time out of school for the student athletes. A quick check of this years bowl game schedule reveals that 18 teams have already played 13 games and will be playing their 14th when their bowl game is played. The other bowl participants will be playing their 13th games. At the time the BCS apologists first started making their case; most colleges played 10 regular season games. Now that is up to 11 in most cases and 12 in many. With play-offs and other exceptions, many colleges do play 13 games before the bowl schedule.

An eight team play-off would add three games to the first and second place finishers seasons. The teams that finished third and fourth would play two extra games. The other four teams, losers in the first round of the play-offs, would play one extra game.

If colleges went back to the 10 game schedules, no team in the play-offs would play more games than most bowl teams do now and some would play less. So much for the arguments about the amount of games and the time missed from school. It is time for a play-off system and a real NCAA football champion. The fans deserve no less.

Congratulations to the Arizona State Sun Devils for their magnificent effort against the highly ranked Kansas State Wildcats. Although the Sun Devils wound up on the short end of a 34-27 score, the Devils outplayed the Wildcats except for a few plays. Kansas State was very fortunate to win this game. ASU fans can take heart that their exciting quarterback Andrew Walter and most of the supporting cast will be back. This is a team that will challenge for a PAC-10 Championship and possibly more.

Like all of you and the rest of my family and friends, I was disappointed that it was not me or one of you who won the big Power ball lottery recently. However, once I read about Andrew “Jack” Whittaker, I feel that this fortune was won by someone who will do good with it. In fact, if I ever do win such a prize, I hope I can be as wise, generous and gracious as he seems to be.

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