Little Danny;549006 wrote:I was listening to 97.1 the Fan today while driving to a friend's house for dinner. The guys were actually going over a scenario where Boise State gets left out of the BCS Bowl picture despite being undefeated. It was something like this:
NC Oregon v. Auburn
Orange: VT v. Pitt
Sugar: LSU v. OSU
Rose: Wisconsin v. TCU
Fiesta: Stanford v. Nebraska
Boise's consolation prize would be either the Kraft Hunger Bowl or the possibly the New Mexico Bowl. That's a huge drop off in both money and prestige for a team that has gone undefeated.
Honestly this is a possibility. There are 10 BCS spots available, and there are six automatic bids. That leaves room for four at-large teams. The way the system is set up is a team from a non-AQ conference finishes in the top six they automatically get in, but only one gets an auto-bid if more than one non-AQ finish that high, so in the current system TCU would automatically get in. If Oregon is in the championship game then the Rose Bowl has to select them. That leave three at-large bids available. Only two teams from any conference can get into the BCS. It's possible that the BCS bowls could select teams from the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 to fill those final three spots and leave Boise out in the cold. The bowls can choose any eligible team (top 16) to fill the empty spots. The bowl want to maximize viewership and revenue, so they'll choose the teams they think will do that.
believer;549037 wrote:While I understand the conference tie-in on the bowl games, a Pitt vs. VT Orange Bowl will only serve to prove once again what a sham the BCS system is. If Boise goes undefeated and doesn't get a BCS bowl invitation it would be bullshit of the highest quality.
That's because you don't understand the BCS system. The BCS is not designed to give you the five best possible match ups in it's bowl games. It is designed to do two things. 1. Match the top two teams in the country in the National Championship game. 2. Provide a pool of eligible teams for the BCS bowls to selects from as their participants. In the old system, before the BCS, there would have been no chance of Boise, TCU, or anyone else from another conference possibly being selected by one of the major bowls. At least now they have a chance to get in. Before 1998 they could have won 100 games in a row in never played in a major bowl game (see BYU c. 1994).
