Goin' Bowling: The BCS etc.

As I understand the rules for the bowls, before a team with a 6-6 record gets signed to a bowl, all 7-5 teams have to get bids. Is that for all conferences, or just within a conference? Because there are a ton of dogmeat non-BCS schools with 7-5 records that appear to be in position to get a bid ahead of Alabama, Oklahoma State, UCLA and possibly Cal.

 

Believe it has to do with conference tie-ins, i.e., before Alabama gets picked by a bowl with SEC tie-ins, Miss. State has to be picked.

 

According to something I read today out of Tuscaloosa, where they should know all about the bowl rules for 6-6 teams, it goes like this ...

A 6-6 team CAN be selected ahead of a 7-5 team, as long as that 7-5 team is still guaranteed a bowl slot from that conference's bowl tie-ins.

So, for example, a 6-6 Alabama could go to the Music City, as long as a 7-5 Mississippi State still had the Independence as an option.

And since the conferences work pretty closely with the bowls in figuring out who will go where, it's pretty easy to do.

 

See, that's where the bowl system irks me.
The organizers have too much lee-way(sp) to jerk around schools which topped other, more well-known schools on the gridiron, fair and square.
The organizers are looking at the almighty dollar and the smaller schools are getting fucked around.
This might be the one intangible that eventually clears the path for a playoff in D-I. The NCAA ends its marriage with the good-ol-boy bowl organizers.
(A few don't fit this mold: My friends at the Cotton Bowl. A great, tradition-rich bowl game if there ever was one. With great hosts.)
But the organizers of the 30 bowls might indeed get screwed over in the end. Or get the final laugh by retaining rights to select whichever "also-ran" they want for their "Classics".

 

Here's what I'm trying to understand from the bowl projections on the national websites. If Missouri loses, how is the Big 12 shut out of getting two spots? I think that's pretty much a given. I understand that if they pick Kansas then that's two spots for the Big 12, and Mizzou would be SOL.
Also, Illinois would not necessarily get Ohio State's spot in the Rose Bowl. That becomes an at-large bid. Typically, the Big Ten has had an easy pick for that spot (Michigan last year for instance ...) This year, the Illini have three losses - one of those to Missouri, and they're currently No. 15 in the BCS standings (not in the pool of at-large teams.)
From the BCS website: "At at-large team is any Football Bowl Subdivision team that is bowl-eligible and meets the following requirements:
A. Has won at least nine regular-season games, and
B. Is among the top 14 teams in the final BCS Standings.

This is how it would go from my understanding with a Missouri loss and a West Virginia win:
BCS: WV vs. Ohio State
Rose: USC/Oregon vs. BCS At-Large
Sugar LSU/Tenn. vs. BCS At-Large
Orange: BC/Va. Tech vs. BCS At-Large
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. BCS At-Large

Georgia takes one at-large spot, and if it beats Washington to go unbeaten, Hawaii probably takes another by staying in the top 12. Florida can't go because two SEC teams would already be in. The loser of BC/Va. Tech is basically eliminated in my mind. LSU would be odd man out with a loss.

That leaves Mizzou, KU, Arizona State and Illinois. To me, Missouri should get in over Kansas because the Tigers beat the Jayhawks. That leaves the final spot for Arizona State or Illinois, which might probably go to Illinois.

 

I wouldn't get too twisted up about the bowl projections. A few weeks ago, one national site had Alabama playing Florida State in the Music City Bowl, which would never happen, since they played in the regular season.

 

From what I've heard north of the river, the Cotton will take the OU-Mizzou loser and Arkansas.

Yes, that's right ... Mizzou potentially dropping from the national title game to the Cotton. (It happened to OU in 2001.)

 

That's pretty much my understanding of it, too, the thought being Kansas has only one loss, so they make the BCS no matter what.

 

Saw a story that projects Kansas in the Fiesta no matter what. Even against Oklahoma? Yes because Kansas didn't play OU, and the head honcho of the Fiesta Bowl said he wouldn't rule out an all-Big 12 game.

As for the bowl selection process ... Kansas was 6-6 last year and was the only elgible Big 12 team not to go. I think NCAA rules state that when it comes to at-large bids, all 7-5, 8-4 teams must be selected before 6-6. So if Arkansas State is 7-5 and a BCS conference team is 6-6 and both are being considering for the Poulan/Weedeater Bowl, the bowl must take Arkansas State.

 

As a Mizzou alum, I don't necessarily have a problem with that, simply because if you'd told me at the beginning of the season that Mizzou would, at minimum, be playing in a New Year's Day game after this year, I would have been thrilled to death. Mind you, we WILL beat OU and be headed to New Orleans, but I digress.

Additionally, I've been told that BCS bowls whose traditional conference champions are lost to the national title game have the option of leapfrogging the pecking order and selecting first. Correct, or no?

 

Sort of. I don't think they get the first two picks if both tie-ins are selected (Rose Bowl)

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the NCAA has any sway over what teams bowls select.