Bowl Selections and Final BCS Later Today…
…but I doubt there will be any surprises. From what I hear, it will be Oklahoma vs. Florida in the BCS National Championship Game, Texas vs. Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, USC vs. Penn State in the Rose Bowl, Utah vs Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, and Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Texas Tech is #7, but doesn’t get a shot (they will probably play Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl) because of the “no more than two teams from a BCS conference unless BCS #1 and #2 are from that conference and not the champions” rule – translation: no more than two teams from the Big 12 can go this year. But why does Ohio State with two losses get to go over Boise State, undefeated? I don’t have a problem with one-loss teams going, but two-loss teams, when there is a team that didn’t lose a game? That makes no sense to me. If anyone knows what rule elevated Ohio State over Boise State, please pass it on…
The “Golden Rule”.
OSU has a huge following of fans who will go to the game. Much better TV ratings too.
Yeah, but they have TWO losses. It’s just not right..Boise State is even ranked higher than them in the BCS rankings…
He He. Money v. What is Right? Which wins?
Look on the bright side, OSU is going to get smoked. Third blow out ina row might take the luster off.
The “Boise State plays crappy teams because it’s in a crap conference” rule? Also, Ohio St. lost to number 1 USC (at the time and without their star player) and number 3 Penn State (at the time). Meanwhile Boise State beat Oregon who was number 17 at the time and ended up 19th. Good for them. One quality win. If the “disrespected” teams really want to enter the equation after going undefeated they should put non-conference teams on their schedule that don’t suck. Or join a better conference…they might make some noise in a Pac-11. Maybe that conference wouldn’t be so disrespected every year. You’d think the SEC and Big 12 were put on earth by God himself with the way the idiot pundits talk. Both the PAC-10 and the ACC can hold their own against either. You used to be able to say that about the Big 10…
Mike, that argument has always struck me as a little weird. While I agree that Boise State simply doesn’t have the schedule to mount much of an argument against someone like Ohio State in this case, I think your remedy is not exactly useful advice. How is Boise State supposed to get good teams on their non-conference schedule? Who do you think wants to play a home-and-home with them? You think – oh, I don’t know – Oklahoma is dying to go play on the blue turf? My guess is no. Nor can they just up and join a difference conference. The Pac-10 is explicitly committed to having only ten teams. It’s not like the BCS conferences have open enrollment periods or something. The problem for Boise State is that they’re caught in a situation that doesn’t have an obvious fix. Although I think the most reasonable advice I’ve seen involved Boise moving to an expanded Mountain West, which has already positioned itself as the de facto #7 conference – although, given the way things have gone this year, I see no evidence that the MWC isn’t as good as or better than the Pac-10 at this point.
Additional information about conference competitiveness: Conference records against “the big 6″ plus Notre Dame:
ACC: 15-7
Big East: 9-7
Big 12: 7-6
Big Ten: 6-7
Pac-10: 6-8
SEC: 6-8
One of the most bizarre myths in college football is that a conference’s strength is entirely determined by the strength of its elite teams. Outside of Florida and Alabama, this year’s SEC was downright woeful. Setting aside the fact that it had no national title contenders, the ACC was easily the best conference top to bottom this season. And speaking of myths, you may or may not know that over the past 6 years, the Big Ten and SEC are tied at 9-9 in head-to-head bowl matchups. (I picked six because the easiest stat I could find that used only recent games had the Big Ten leading 8-7 going into last year, and the SEC went 2-1 in those bowls to even the score. I was not attempting to cherry pick.)
Oh, also, be wary of Ole Miss. That game is screaming “upset” to me.
I almost always am speaking tongue in cheek. But, the Pac-10 could drop someone that sucks if Boise State was interested, but they’re not. That whole conference likes being disrespected. Plus, Idaho sucks, the blue field has nothing to do with why people don’t want to go there. Well, a little to do…
Incidentally, where did you pull your data? Are there head to head conference numbers?
Oh, Ole Miss is capable of winning, there is no doubt. Tech had better take them seriously…
Mike, the most valuable resource in all of sports is the Stassen index for college football. Point your browser to http://football.stassen.com/ and try not to get completely lost in geek heaven. He also has a link there to James Howell’s database, which is also incredibly awesome: http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/ScoresIndex.htm
The conference head-to-head stats are courtesy of Matt Hinton aka Dr. Saturday, who provides – bar none – the best college football analysis there is to be found: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday
Hey, all this college football talk this season and you’re just now sharing these links? You’re holding out on us…