The 11th hour...

The final day of bowl game deliberation is upon us. Here's a recap of yesterday's madness (which was quite exciting).

The two games that would've put a second Big Ten BCS-bid in question were 15 Pitt vs. 5 Cincinnati and 22 Nebraska vs. 3 Texas. Cincinnati won by 1 after a 21 point comeback in the snow. Pittsburgh missed an extra point earlier in the game, so they should be kicking themselves right now (no pun intended). Texas and Nebraska both looked pretty bad in the first half. After a wacky clock situation on the second-to-last play of the game, Texas had one second on the clock to kick a field goal. A 48-yarder barely made it through the uprights as time expired. Looked like 6 inches, maybe a foot away from the post. Crazy.

The BCS "drafts" teams to play in their games after their "tie-ins" are met. There's a lot of rules, so you'll have to trust me on how this goes down...

SEC Champ: Alabama
Big 12 Champ: Texas
Pac 10 Champ: Oregon
Big 10 Champ: Ohio State
ACC Champ: Georgia Tech (woohoo!)
Big East Champ: Cincinnati

National Championship - 1 vs. 2
Alabama vs. Texas


Automatic tie-ins

Rose Bowl - Pac 10 vs. Big 10
Oregon vs. Ohio State

Orange Bowl - ACC Champ
Georgia Tech

ok...so after all the automatic crap, here's how many spots are left:
National Championship: 0
Rose Bowl: 0
Fiesta Bowl: 2
Sugar Bowl: 2
Orange Bowl: 1

At-large pool:
Cincinnati
TCU
Boise State
Iowa
Penn State
Virginia Tech
BYU

Fiesta and Sugar will select first, since they're automatic tie-ins went to the National Championship:
Sugar will select Florida (SEC)
Fiesta will select ??? - I'm thinking TCU

After this, the pecking order for selections changes every year. For this year, it goes Orange, Fiesta, Sugar. Its up to each bowl to see who they want in at that point, but as pointed out above, 3 spots remaining. I see those going to Cincinnati, Boise State, and Iowa, in no particular order.

Here's my predicted BCS Bowl Lineup:
National Championship Game: Alabama vs. Texas
Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Cincinnati
Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Boise State
Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. Iowa



NOW! It is almost certain the Big Ten will get 2 BCS teams in. After Wisconsin's demolition of Hawaii last night, here's the Big Ten Bowl picture:

Capital One Bowl: Penn State/Iowa (90% sure Penn State)
Outback Bowl: Wisconsin
Champs Sports Bowl: Northwestern
Alamo Bowl: (see below)
Insight Bowl: (see below)
Its-so-cold-in-the-D bowl: Please pick Notre Dame

As many of you know, Alamo will decide between Minnesota and MSU. It was general consensus that the Alamo would take MSU over Minnesota because of the extremely large fan base in Texas and large amount of alumni willing to travel. However, this was before Glenn Winston, Roderick Jenrette, Mark Dell, BJC, and CLR decided to go street after the football banquet. There's no doubt in my mind that MSU is a worse team without these guys. The Alamo has to weigh how good our team is without those guys, in addition to having the fear that one of our players will thug out in San Antonio. That's what's really up in the air right now.

Also, have no fear even if, by some stroke of magic, the Big Ten doesn't get 2 BCS teams in. If the Big Ten bowls get "bumped down" the Insight will be choosing between MSU and Minnesota. Minnesota has been there 2 out of the last 3 years, so MSU will make them more money.

The Bowl Selection shows are on at 8pm today. I believe there's one on FOX and another on ESPN. However, you'll probably find out sooner if you just look on their respective websites. They usually update them with the selections before they release them on the show. (wtf??) I'll be crossing my fingers for you, Spartan band!