Monday, November 26, 2007

could byu sneak into a bcs bowl?

thanks to a not-often-quoted rule in the BCS, mountain west conference champion BYU has a slight chance at sneaking into a BCS bowl, which would probably the fiesta or sugar bowl. we're all familiar with the rule that if a non-BCS school finishes in the bcs top 12, they are automatically in a BCS bowl. but what about this tasty lick (from wikipedia):

the highest ranked champion of a non-BCS conference will receive an automatic berth if ranked in the top sixteen and higher than another BCS conference champion.
BYU needs to have many pieces fall in place for this to happen. UCLA must defeat USC this saturday. also, arizona needs to beat arizona state. this would give UCLA the pac-1o title and open the door for the cougars, since they would be a non-BCS conference champ that finished higher than a BCS conference champ. (UCLA is currently not ranked in the BCS top 40.) here's the current BCS standings from 13-19:

13. arizona st .5571
14. tennessee .4614
15. illinois .4198
16. clemson .3358
17. oregon .2706
18. wisconsin .2628
19. byu .2252

BYU would also need LSU to beat tennessee in the SEC title game, and for oregon state to beat oregon in the civil war. with teams 13, 14, and 17 ahead of them all losing, byu could climb ahead of them all and finish at 16. incidentally, whether or not hawaii (currently ranked 12th in the BCS) wins is not relevant to byu's chances, since they could also make it in under the same scenario as champs of the WAC. hawaii also needs to lose, and pretty bad at that so that they tumble, since the BCS rule references only the highest non-BCS conference champ, which BYU would not be if hawaii stays at #12. doh.

do i think BYU would get beat down like a rented goat in a BCS bowl? yes, i do. but the multiple million dollars would be nice for us and our mountain west colleagues.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

while it would be nice, the stars would definitely have to align. i will enjoy seeing hawaii getting slaughtered though.