So what now? Where do the at-large teams go?
Didn't both of those conferences host an at-large team?
So now you basically get 2 at-large teams playing against each other every year no matter what?
Currently:
Rose Bowl – Big Ten champion vs. Pac-12 champion
Fiesta Bowl – Big 12 champion vs. at large
Orange Bowl – ACC champion vs. at large
Sugar Bowl – SEC champion vs. at large
The Big East champion takes one of the remaining spots
Lets assume the Big 12 moves to what is currently the Sugar Bowl in exchange for the at-large.
You get,
Rose Bowl – Big Ten champion vs. Pac-12 champion
Fiesta Bowl – at large vs. at large
Orange Bowl – ACC champion vs. at large
Sugar Bowl – SEC champion vs. Big 12 champion
The Big East champion takes one of the remaining spots
So now, instead of expecting many potential David vs. Goliath matchups where small schools come in to challenge large schools, the Fiesta Bowl will become the "Tostitos Fiesta-Little League Bowl" and teams like TCU and BSU will forever be relegated to playing each other just to appease the ego of the BCS?
I know that's not written in stone but it's painfully obvious even from right now.
And it's not like they didn't do this sort of stuff anyway. They did it in 2009 wen Boise and TCU met. Boise #6 and TCU #4 and for whatever reason (cowardice most likely, the BCS didn't want to expose two AQ teams to a potential loss) #3 Cincinnati played #5 Florida.
I dunno. Maybe I'm looking too much into it but it seems like having a fewer number of potential games where at-large's play AQs sure allows the BCS to pretty much relegate the small programs to an annual matchup.
Non-AQs get 2 bids max. The Big East has only played 1 Non-AQ conference team during their filling in role and that was the year they played Utah who met a criteria to gain an automatic bid and who later pissed all over the Big East.
So that narrows things down a bit more.
Here's something else. I'm not totally sure but I don't think that a BCS at large school has ever been matched up against a Non-AQ conference at large school. Granted the sample size is small but not so small as to be ignored.
Now, there have been 2 instances where Non-AQ teams met criteria and earned the automatic bid but looking at these games just makes me shake my head even more.
2007: #5 Georgia (BCS at large) vs. #10 Hawaii (Automatic Non-AQ WAC Champ)
At the same time #8 Kansas (BCS at large) vs. #3 VT (ACC Champ)
This came a year after Boise stunned Oklahoma. Just seems funny that a year after the BCS was caught with egg on it's face that the matchup for the next Non-AQ team would ranking-wise be a little widened. Almost like a, "we'll end this nonsense for good" type of move.
2008: #6 Utah (Automatic Non-AQ MWC Chap) vs. #4 Alabama (BCS at large)
Same time: #3 Texas (Met Criteria For AQ) vs. #10 Ohio State (BCS at large)
Again, a little funny to me.
2009 of course was the year I was talking about earlier where the BCS just said "screw it" and denied both TCU and BSU the chance to play a few of the big schools.
Of course, these nonsensical types of ranking match ups happen all the time but it's just interesting to see the course of events.
2006: BCS reluctantly gives a small school a crack at an AQ school and Boise defeats Oklahoma.
2007: Hawaii faces a much, much tougher opponent and is handled.
2008: Utah gets their turn at an opponent ranked ahead of them while a third team ranked ahead of both Utah and it's opponent has to play a team ranked lower than everyone.
2009: Boise / TCU get shafted into playing in a consolation bowl.
Now they're going to reduce the number of games that at large teams play in by condensing two at large teams into a single game every year.
BCS sucks.
Anything they do that doesn't involve killing itself is just a waste of time.
If ever there are 2 small schools getting bids, I'm convinced they'll play one another.
