If you haven't read this article about the BCS rankings and Florida's current malaise in the standings, do so immediately. For the sake of this article, feel free to assume that Florida wins the SEC Championship game, and Oklahoma romps Missouri in the Big XII title matchup.
What if Oklahoma ascends to #1, and Texas squeaks past Florida for #2? Lets take care of the obvious, first of all.
- The Big XII would have contributed both of its BCS teams.
- Florida fans would raise hell.
- A whole new can of worms would potentially blow the lid off of the BCS, for good this time.
What is my angle?
As you all are well aware, the BCS takes an absolute maximum of 2 teams per conference. This is to prevent an east coast (or SEC) bias, I imagine.
The Fiesta Bowl contracts the Big XII representative to play in its game every year. Should they lose their champion to the BCS title game, they take another Big XII team. Should they lose both teams to the BCS Championship, what would they do?
- Florida would be the automatic SEC berth, and would thus be slotted to play in the Sugar Bowl.
- USC and Penn State are locked into the Rose Bowl, no matter what happens this week.
- Boston College or Virginia Tech, whoever wins the ACC, is in the Orange Bowl.
- Cincinnati is playing somewhere.
- Utah is playing somewhere.
This leaves 2 at-large berths, and the Fiesta Bowl has complete control over the future of the BCS. In terms of chaos, they could really "tear down this wall," should they so decide to.
The Fiesta Bowl can play it safe, picking Alabama and a team like Ohio State... Or they can spring for complete anarchy, picking Boise State and another at-large team like Ball State. Does this make monetary sense? Absolutely not! But it would leave these teams out of the BCS, big money bowls:
- Alabama
- Texas Tech (already eliminated by virtue of Texas/Oklahoma title matchup)
- Ohio State
- TCU
The sheer amount of awfulness that the BCS Bowls would reek this year would be enough to have a playoff system appear as soon as the 2010 bowl cycle.
Lets look at the chaos:
| Bowl Game | Participants | |
| Fiesta Bowl |
Boise St. Broncos (at-large) vs. Ball St. Cardinals (at-large) |
|
| Sugar Bowl |
Florida Gators (lock) vs. Utah/Cincinnati |
|
| Orange Bowl |
ACC Champion (lock) vs. Utah/Cincinnati |
|
| Rose Bowl |
USC Trojans (lock) vs. Penn St. Nittany Lions (lock) |
|
| BCS Championship | Oklahoma Sooners (lock) vs. Texas Longhorns (lock) |
The whole thing is a beautiful mess. If only it would happen.
All of this is moot if Alabama wins, or Florida passes Texas in the BCS bowls... It's just so glorious to conceive an alternate reality where undefeated teams are rewarded for their play.