PonyFans.com

Should the BCS give smaller conferences more consideration?
2003-08-05

Cast your vote in today's poll on the right



Should the BCS give smaller conferences more consideration?
Vote

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YES


By Mike Strain
The Oklahoman
Here's what should happen next in the next NCAA basketball tournament:

Take Tulsa out and leave Gonzaga home. Even if they win their conference tournament. They play in lame conferences, after all.

The Bowl Championship Series deems only a few conferences and mighty Notre Dame worthy of inclusion. For the rest ... play hard and try to get ranked really high to earn one of two at-large spots.

I know, I know. The NCAA Tournament takes a deeper field, and teams from smaller conferences have a better chance of competing with the mighties in basketball than in football.

But the BCS gives teams like Tulane virtually no chance of inclusion. The system is weighted against them. They can't rise in rankings because of strength of schedule; and they can't get a stronger schedule because power conference schools don't like playing scrappy little brothers.

Minor conference champs don't deserve automatic BCS bids. They do deserve a better system.



NO


By Francisco Ojeda
The Oklahoman
Yes, the BCS has its flaws. But slighting the smaller conferences is not one of them.

The BCS rewards the power teams and conferences because they are the best in college football. There is more revenue, more fans and more television exposure to be made with name teams like Oklahoma, than say, Tulane.

Major sports is about making money, not about trying to please everybody. More money is to be made with bigger named schools in the big games. Once in maybe 15 years will there be a team from a small conference that has a chance to compete with the top 10 teams in the nation. But that's dwarfed by the fact they don't compete game in and game out against tough opponents.

Do you think the 1984 BYU Cougars would have won the national title if they had played a Big 12 schedule? I don't think so. The larger conferences like the Big 12 deserve more BCS bids because it's more difficult to win and a bigger accomplishment to have a winning record.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© The Oklahoma Publishing Co. and its subsidiary, NewsOK.com.
Article may be downloaded for personal use or research but

Absolutely teams from smaller conferences should be given consideration. If Boise State goes 12-0 this year - with a schedule that includes a couple of solid OOC opponents, it would be a crime if the Broncos have to play in some meaningless DotCom bowl.

This is merely a debate between the haves and the have nots. We are non-BCS and a have not. Guess which option we should favor.

The point is that the BCS cartel, because they have the bowl tie-ins, they use that against the lesser schools for recruiting that in return keeps the lesser schools less competitive.

That's why it is a monopoly, and it is anti-competitive, and that is why it should be adjusted.