\"Tulane: BCS Move Step In Right Direction\"

[NavyCrimson]

Tulane: BCS Move Step In Right Direction

any of you guys can read between the lines here?

i'm as skeptical as $%%$#; after all, the bcs-bs was never intended for anyone else so if they're that serious about 'inclusiveness', let's just do away with the whole %%^$ thing & create a true championship-playoff system or go back to the bowl system.

here's the link: http://www.collegesports.com/sports/m-f ... 04aai.html

Tulane: BCS Move Step In Right Direction

Progress in new plans, but not enough

June 24, 2004


By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer


NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Tulane president and BCS foe Scott Cowen is encouraged by the Bowl Championship Series' plans to give all Division I-A conferences a shot at automatically qualifying for a spot in college football's most lucrative games.


"I'm very pleased considering that a year ago nobody thought we had a chance of this happening," Cowen said Thursday. "I don't think it goes far enough. But it's a start."


Currently, only the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10 and Southeastern Conference have automatic qualification in the four bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar) that make up the BCS. Notre Dame also has a guaranteed spot if it finishes among the top teams in the BCS standings.

Under BCS guidelines, a league's champions over a four-year period must have an average final ranking in the BCS standings of 12 or better to keep its automatic qualification with no questions asked. If the average falls below 12, the league's automatic qualification comes under review.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday that BCS officials want to change that system.

"What we're talking about now is something more expansive," said Tranghese, the outgoing BCS coordinator. "Something that will be applied to all the conferences."

Whatever change BCS officials come up with wouldn't go into effect until the 2006 season, at the earliest.

Cowen, whose school plays in Conference USA, first called for changes to the BCS a year ago.

He formed a coalition of the presidents of 52 universities excluded from the BCS. He sees that as the biggest reason the BCS is now looking at revamping its system.

"In the past, one or two schools that did not belong to the organization tried to complain, but it was [deleted] that basis to make a change," Cowen said. "This was the first time an organized group with a plan tried it."

Eventually Cowen would like to see even more drastic changes to the BCS.

"We should have a system where everyone had the right to qualify and there are no automatic qualifiers," Cowen said. "At the very least every conference champion should be an automatic qualifier."

Cowen acknowledges that step will be harder.

"What it will take is for a non-qualifier to play and win or be very competitive," he said.

The BCS has already taken steps to give schools in the other five Division I-A conferences more access to the big-ticket bowls by adding a fifth game. Starting in the 2006 season, the BCS will include 10 teams instead of eight, doubling the wild-card spots to four.