The BCS Situation

After a short hiatus up in Michigan, I figured I'd give people a little insight into how the BCS works. Die-hard fans, sorry to bore you. There's a plethora of rules/regulations that go into the BCS selection process, but I'll keep it to the important ones.

We'll start at the top.

BCS Championship Game
The National Championship Game (NC) will always have the 1 and 2 teams in the BCS poll. The BCS Poll is affected by a human poll sent in every week by coaches, athletic directors, and media across the country, as well as a computer-generated, numerical poll created by a writer named Jeff Sagarin.

Rose Bowl
The Rose Bowl, as many of you know, puts the Big Ten Champion against the Pac 10 Champion. It's old. Really old. They grasp at tradition with an Iron Fist. The Pac 10 has dominated in the last couple years. If a Big Ten team is in the NC, the 2nd place Big Ten team will take the Rose Bowl spot, provided they are in the Top 14 of the final BCS Poll. Many may remember a few years back, Ohio State went to the NC and Illinois took the Rose Bowl spot. Played in Pasadena, CA

Fiesta Bowl
Big 12 champ vs. an "at-large" selection chosen by the head honchos running the bowl. At-large means any team that is not tied-in to a specific bowl, such as the Big Ten or Pac 10 champ. Again, the at-large selection must be from the top 14 in the BCS poll. Played in Tempe, AZ

Orange Bowl
Normally, the Orange Bowl puts the ACC champ against the Big East champ, however, the ACC is the only one required to go. The other slot is an at-large. If the Big East champ is in the top 14, they are guaranteed to be selected for one of the BCS bowls. Played in Miami, FL

Sugar Bowl
Puts the SEC Champ against an at-large team. Played in New Orleans, LA

So, after all that, here is the top 14 of the BCS standings right now:
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Cincinnati
6. Boise State
7. Oregon
8. Ohio State
9. Iowa
10. Georgia Tech
11. Penn State
12. Virginia Tech
13. LSU
14. BYU

There is still one more weekend of College football left. Florida and Alabama will meet in the SEC Championship game. Winner goes to the NC, loser goes to the Sugar Bowl. A huge game is Oregon vs. Oregon St. on Thursday night. A huge rivalry game, AND the winner goes to the Rose Bowl. The BCS Picture:

NC: Florida/Alabama vs. #2 (probably Texas)
Rose: Ohio State vs. Oregon/Oregon St.
Fiesta: At-large vs. At-large
Orange: Georgia Tech/Clemson vs. At-large
Sugar: Alabama/Florida vs. At-large

Here's the At-large pool, the teams remaining, to take the 4 at-large spots:
TCU
Boise State
Cincinnati
Iowa
Penn State
Virginia Tech
LSU
BYU

Cincinnati, the Big East Champ, will take on spot. TCU will get another, Boise State most likely will get another. The remaining spot comes down to Iowa, Penn State, Virginia Tech, and BYU (LSU is not eligible, since only 2 teams from the same conference can be selected in the BCS). If Iowa or Penn State aren't selected, I think a lot of people around the country would be shocked.

So why should MSU fans care? Well, if two Big Ten teams go BCS, every other team is "bumped up" This means:
Capital One: Iowa/Penn State
Outback: Wisconsin
Champs Sports: Northwestern
Alamo: Minnesota/Michigan State
Insight: Michigan State/Minnesota
Little Ceauseuuar's Pizza Bowl: No one, because its in Detroit.

Minnesota has been to the Insight bowl for 3 of the last 4 years. The bowl won't make a ton of money from ticket sales -- many fans don't want to vacation in the same place over and over. The Insight bowl reps will likely try to convince the Alamo bowl to take Minnesota over Michigan State, so it's really a toss up to who goes to those two bowls.

So that's the explanation. If you have comments/questions, I'd love to hear them.