BCS - Automatic bids won't be limited to six conferences

[Cheesesteak]

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 ESPN
Automatic bids won't be limited to six conferences
Associated Press

PHOENIX -- The Bowl Championship Series is opening up its automatic bids to all Division I-A conferences, starting with the 2007 season, and under a new plan the leagues will now be judged from top to bottom.

Currently, only the six conferences that formed the BCS could earn an automatic bid to college football's four major bowl games, including the national title game.

The previous standard for holding on to automatic qualification was based on the average BCS standings finish over a four-year period of a conferences' top team in the rankings. That will still be a factor, but not the only one.

"In addition, we will look at a conference's overall strength," BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said Wednesday, the final day of meetings with officials from 11 major college football conferences and Notre Dame's athletic director.

The BCS will also take into account the number of teams in a conference that finish in the BCS top 25 over a four-year period.

In addition, there is a proposed appeals process if a conference doesn't match up with the others under the new formula but still believes it belongs in the BCS.

"We're set through the first two years [2005-06] of the new agreement, with the same six conferences having the automatic-qualification berths," said Weiberg, the Big 12 commissioner. "This evaluation will then occur, and it could change for the final two years of this new agreement."

The BCS signed a four-year deal with Fox to televise the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls from 2007-10 and the national title game from 2007-09. The Rose Bowl has its own television deal with ABC.

Weiberg said the new evaluation system could lead to more -- or less -- automatic bids.

The Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East champions have had automatic entry into the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls since the BCS was implemented in 1998.

Other standards were set to allow teams from outside the BCS conferences to qualify automatically, but not until last year when Utah earned a spot in the Fiesta Bowl had a team from outside one of the big six conferences played in the BCS.

The BCS also decided to expand to five games last year. Starting with the 2006 season, 10 teams will qualify for the BCS, with the top two meeting in a newly created championship game to be played a week after the four major bowls.

The addition of another game and the new evaluation process for automatic entry were prompted by protests from the five lower-revenue conferences -- such as the Mountain West, where Utah plays, and Conference USA -- that the BCS was unfairly shutting out dozens of schools.

Of the original six BCS conferences, the Big East would appear to be most affected by the changes. The league lost Miami and Virginia Tech last season to the ACC; Boston College follows this year. However, the addition of Louisville this year, along with South Florida and Cincinnati, should help the Big East's chances of keeping its elite status.

Weiberg said Louisville, which finished 10th in the BCS standings last year while playing in C-USA, will be included in the Big East's evaluation and should help the league retain its bid.

"The reason for that is that we're trying to get an assessment looking forward of the prospective strength of the conference, even though it will be based on past performance," Weiberg said.

Beginning in 2006, Notre Dame will earn an automatic BCS berth with a top eight ranking in the final standings, Weiberg said. Also, under a new arrangement, Notre Dame is now guaranteed BCS money every season -- even when they don't play in a game.

In the past, Notre Dame would receive upward of $14 million when they played in a BCS game, but nothing if they didn't.

The proposal and others developed in Phoenix are subject to review by an 11-person committee formed by university presidents. Weiberg said that would be done in a teleconference call on May 12.

He said the athletic directors who met in Phoenix will do more teleconferencing and possibly have one more meeting to fine-tune proposals -- especially the makeup of the replacement poll to take the place of The AP poll in the new BCS standings formula -- before the Collegiate Commissioners Association meetings in Denver on June 20.

The new poll will not be unveiled until June at the earliest.

[MrMustang1965]

Damn the Irish! The BCS still s*cks!

[SWC2010]

EVERYBODYSAY:

Thank you U of UTAH!!!!!!!

[EastStang]

But what this does is make the work of Utah, Louisville and Boise irrelevent since the BCS is now going to "weigh the strength of the conferences". Read between lines: Good luck getting into the BCS, CUSA, Sun Belt, WAC and MWC, when you have to stack up against Big XII, Big XI, PAC 10, ACC, SEC and BE with a four year top to bottom average. The only weak link in that chain is the BE and they get to count Louisville. For the past four years the MWC has had in essence 1.25 teams finishing in the top 25 (TCU and Utah). For the past four years the WAC has had 1.0 teams finishing the top 25 (Boise and/or Fresno). For the past four years. For the past four years CUSA has .75 (USM, UTEP and Tulane), MAC (1.5, Toledo, N. Ill, BG Marshall and Miami). For the past four years the BE is at 2.0 (Pitt, WVA, ND, Louisville, Cinn., Syracuse). After that there is a stratum leap to the Big Five. I'm sure the SEC, Big XII, Big X(I), ACC are in the 3.0 category. The PAC 10 is probably in the 2.5 category. This holds out hope and that's about it. Hopefully, CUSA will buckle up its chin straps and work to get stronger. That means toughness from top to bottom and victories over BCS teams. Otherwise, we will never get there. Right now the conference with the best chance is probably the MAC.

[Cheesesteak]

Posted by EastStang:

"Right now the conference with the best chance is probably the MAC."

As a side note, it looks like Temple Football to the MAC...

MAC Expansion May Force Change In N.C. State Schedule

11:37 am EDT April 26, 2005 WRAL.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State's 2005 football schedule is in limbo.

The Wolfpack is scheduled to play Temple on Sept. 10 at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field. But because of the Mid-American Conference's possible expansion, the Pack could wind up facing Middle Tennessee State in Raleigh.

N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler said nothing has been agreed on.

Fowler said Temple could join the Mid-American as a football-only member this year. He said the Owls were told that if they could rearrange their schedule to play four MAC teams, Temple would be eligible to represent the conference in a bowl game.

MAC member Western Michigan is scheduled to play at Wisconsin on Sept. 10. But it now appears Temple could fill the slot and play the Badgers, who would agree to the switch.

Temple, in turn, would get rid of its Sept. 24 opponent, Middle Tennessee State, to play Western Michigan in a MAC game.

[The PonyGrad]

On the other hand the MAC suffers from a lot of bottom dwellers.

[EastStang]

The MAC had a two year run where it had two teams in the top 25.