Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Three BCS teams from the Big12?

Could the Big-12 land three teams in BCS bowls? From the BCS eligibility criteria, the top 2 teams, and the winners of the Big 6 conferences get automatic bids. The "no more than two teams" rule is not mentioned until the discussion of at-large criteria. How far fetched would it be? Actually, not too far.

Suppose Tech beats Oklahoma and Baylor and goes to the Big-12 championship game undefeated. Alabama, looking forward to Florida, lets its guard down and loses to Auburn. The end of season standing would look something like this:

1) Tech
2) Texas
3) Florida
4) USC
5) Alabama
6) Utah
7) Oklahoma

So, we come to the championship games. Alabama's 'preparation' pays off, and they beat Florida. Missouri comes alive and nips Tech. Missouri gets the big-12 championship, and tech falls down to #2 in the BCS rankings. This leaves the championship game as a rematch between Tech and Texas. But wait, the champion of the Big-12 is also guaranteed a spot in the Fiesta bowl. So, Missouri would end up there.
Another interesting scenario would be Oklahoma beating Tech coupled with some rivalry losses, leaving three Big-12 south teams in the top 3. If one loses the championship game, they would likely be 'stuck' with three BCS teams.

Still it requires a lot of things to fall right this season, though nothing that is too far fetched.

The Big-10, however, is almost set up for it. With each team not playing two other teams each season, there could be a possibility that 3 teams end up undefeated in conference play. There if they never played each other, the team that scheduled the fewest number of IAA teams would get the Rose Bowl birth. So suppose, Penn State and Ohio State finished undefeated, but each schedule one IAA team. Northwestern managed to go undefeated in conference play, but scheduled all IA nonconference teams - and lost them all. They would still get the Rose Bowl - even if the other two were ranked one and two.

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