Besides the SEC (6), the Big 12 (5) and the Big 10 (3) – guess who else has at least 3 teams ranked in the final BCS top 25?
Let’s start with who it is not:
The ACC – they have Virginia Tech at #13. Va-Tech won the ACC and by virtue of that conference crown, received an invite to the Orange Bowl. Mind you – Virginia Tech lost what was essentially a home game to
Boise
State and dropped a true home game to a division 2 team named after one of the founding fathers. The ACC also had
Florida
St. finishing at #23.
Well it must be the Big East right? They are another one of the power conferences.
No, not them either. Their lone entry is
West Virginia at #23.
Connecticut checks in at #25 in the AP poll but is not ranked in the BCS. Despite that fact,
Connecticut somehow managed to win the dreadful Big East and will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Sounds like a pretty fair system to me.
So if it’s not the ACC or Big East, it has to be the only remaining power conference – the PAC 10.
Swing and a miss there as well. The Pac 10 of course has 2 excellent teams this year with
Oregon #2 and Stanford #4. Everyone else in the conference has at least 5 losses.
Well okay then, if it’s not the power conferences, most likely the Mountain West has 3 teams ranked in the top 25. They’ve been the little upstarts for the past 5 or 6 years.
Not as much this year – the MWC only has two in the BCS top 25. TCU #3 and
Utah #21.
Okay, enough already –
Who would have thought the WAC would end up with 3 teams in the top 25?
All the talk at the beginning of the year was about how
Boise
State would need to shine in their non-conference games against Virginia Tech and
Oregon
State. And they did. Who would have thought that there would be 2 other really good teams come out of the WAC this year. Go figure.
You throw in the fact that the University of Central Florida of Conference USA (2011 BYU opponent) finished #25 in the BCS and you have nearly a quarter of the top 25 teams from outside the BCS conferences. Just goes to show that there is more parity in college football than there has ever been. It’s practically criminal that the BCS still contols the entire game the way they do. What’s worse though is the mindset and perception of those associated with the cartell and how they really still have no idea there is good, and in some cases, better football played outside the BCS conferences.
You all probably heard the remarks from Professor Orville Redenbacker of Ohio State. The guy tried to do some damage control but we all know his original comments still represent the majority of the college football world. The guy’s real name is Gordan Gee and he’s the President of the 2nd or 3rd largest public university in America.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5874511
Take a look at this cat and try to come to grips with the fact that college football is ruled by guys just like him.
Matt Nielson has been writing about the college sports landscape in Utah and the Intermountain West since 2010. When he’s not pretending to be a professional blogger, he works full time as a residential real estate agent and house flipper. Matt graduated from Brigham Young University in 2000. He and his family reside in Salt Lake City, UT.
