Big East isn't in a league with other ranked teams in BCS

[Water Pony]

For you BCS Busters and Haters, here is a challenge for the Big East and the BCS Model

By Jack Carey, USA TODAY

In its first year without national power Miami (Fla.), the Big East retains its automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series, but the early returns for the league show only one team — No. 20 West Virginia — among the BCS' top 25.

Three conferences that do not have automatic BCS spots have teams ahead of the Mountaineers. No. 7 Utah from the Mountain West, No. 14 Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference and No. 17 Louisville from Conference USA are rated higher than the Big East's top team.

West Virginia (5-1, 1-0 Big East) is tied for the early lead in the conference with Syracuse (3-3, 1-0) and hosts the Orange on Thursday. Pittsburgh, Boston College and Rutgers have a league loss each so the automatic bid is up for grabs. But WVU figures to be favored in the rest of its games.

The Big East is assured a BCS berth the next four years, but BCS officials are looking at a new set of criteria for qualification.

"Any evaluation that we would have of any conference would be more than a single-season evaluation, and we have not finalized how future automatic qualification will be determined ultimately," said BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg, commissioner of the Big 12. "But what we are thinking about and what we are continuing to work on is a system that will take into account a four-year rating of a conference. We try to look at elements other than a single team's relative ranking in the system."

Two conference champs that got automatic BCS bids were not in the top 15 of the final ratings. Purdue's 2000 team, which was 8-3 and made the Rose Bowl, finished 17th. The 1999 Stanford team that made the Rose Bowl also was 8-3. The standings that season only went 15 deep, according to Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda.

The Big East figures to be stronger next year, when Louisville, which came within three points of Miami last week, joins the league and last-place Temple departs.

First impressions: Weiberg, in his first year as BCS coordinator, said that while he was surprised Miami passed Oklahoma for the second spot in the first set of ratings, there was no sense of embarrassment that the BCS' new formula did not produce teams at the top that most expected.

"Oklahoma last week (in a dry run) had been as high as two or three in the computer poll average, so I was expecting it would stay above five and that we would not have that scenario developing," he said. "I don't think we're embarrassed by it. ... I think this is working as we modeled it. We were very much aware that a consensus No. 2 could change if it had a computer average of five or worse. ... I hope we're not giving the impression of apologizing because I don't think that's the case at all."

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ ... -bcs_x.htm

[DiamondM75]

Jeeeez, just what I needed, a BCS comentary.

I think the whole BCS concept is bunk. Here is a simple yet very effective method to determine the BCS bowl teams.

Use the AP top 25 poll.

Then take the top 8 teams.

1 & 2 play, 3 & 4 play, 5 & 6 play and 7 & 8 play.

oh, and if they expand to 5 BCS bowls, then 9 & 10 play

Just think, if this had been in place in '82, then SMU vs Penn State for national champs, not SMU vs Pitt just for fun.

No fancy computer needed here.

[EastStang]

I still like a playoff.
Have the Big X, Big XII, Pac 10, SEC, ACC champions get a first round bye.

Have the MWC, BE, WAC, MAC, SBC, CUSA champs play the first round.

The winners of those games play the teams with the Bye and off you go. Tie in these playoffs with the bowls and they would love the new found crowds.

Imagine if a game between Boise and ULL meant advancing to the next round. WVa. v. USM, Miami of O v. Utah. Those games would draw very well. Then the next round of games would feature say Boise v. Oklahoma, Utah v. USC, W Va. v. Miami, Auburn v. Wisconsin.
Next round you'd get maybe Ok v. USC, Miami v. Auburn. Winners go to the final game.

Then your runners up get to go to all the odd bowls. Lastly, I think there should be a Tidee Bowl for the two teams with the worst Div 1-A ranking. Why? Because they need an extra game to jump start the next season. Last year we would have duked it out with Army. Host the game in the Jersey Meadowlands, that would be appropriate.

[Mike Damone]

I think Utah is going to make it this year. If that happens, someone like Cal, Florida State, Texas, Georgia, or Michigan could be left out. That is going to tick some people off. Utah will have to make a good impression for the lower conferences to get respect. We knew at sometime or another that a Non-BCS team would make it. And when that happens, they have to be ready to play or it will get worse in the future as the human polls will be rigged to keep them out.

No cheap shot at TCU, but I'm glad they didn't make it last year and have to be that team. I feel Utah might just be ready to play with the big boys.

[MustangStealth]

I still like a playoff.
Have the Big X, Big XII, Pac 10, SEC, ACC champions get a first round bye.

Have the MWC, BE, WAC, MAC, SBC, CUSA champs play the first round.

That's not a bad idea, but it has one major flaw. There's no Notre Dame exemption. Would they (and Army and Navy) finally be told to join a conference or lose any shot at playoffs? Be relegated to New Year's Eve bowls?

[EastStang]

ND, Army and Navy could replace the lowest ranked team if they had a better w/l record.

Last year Army would have played us in the Tidee Bowl.