This season, the Wisconsin football team has taken fans on a magical ride. The Badgers' offense will go down as the most prolific in this school's history. We've seen thrilling victories over Ohio State and Iowa and a stretch run that saw the Big Ten's middle class get steamrolled by the Badgers running game. It seems Wisconsin will be heading to the Rose Bowl with a share of their first Big Ten title in over a decade.
But that's just the thing: The split the conference title with both Ohio State and Michigan State this year, and both of those teams are deserving of BCS berths, but one of them will likely not get one.
The Big Ten's power trio has been a force in college football this season, with the Badgers ranked No. 5, the Buckeyes No. 6 and the Spartans No. 8 in the latest edition of the BCS standings.
Wisconsin has all but secured its trip to Pasadena on New Year's Day, and Ohio State looks primed for a berth in either the Sugar or Orange Bowl, which leaves Michigan State on the outside of the BCS picture looking in. And after what the Spartans have accomplished this season that's not fair.
Michigan State will still get a respectable bowl bid, most likely the Capital One Bowl, but they have proven they belong among the BCS elite. It is just a matter of the BCS not having enough spots for deserving teams.
Every year there are teams that are deserving of BCS spots that don't get in, but that's generally because there is a wealth of deserving teams filling all the spots. Yet,this year there will be one team who gets a BCS bid taking the spot of much more deserving teams like Michigan State: The champion of the Big East.
The Big East champion gets an automatic berth in a BCS bowl, and this year that champion is going to be nowhere near worthy.
West Virginia debuted at No. 20 in the initial BCS standings, but after that the Big East didn't have a team ranked in the top 25 until West Virginia reappeared this week at No. 23. As it stands right now, 7-4 Connecticut would gain the Big East's automatic bid with a win over South Florida next weekend, and the Huskies received exactly zero votes in the AP Top 25 this week.
That four-loss team is going to play in one of college football's premier bowls instead of a much more deserving team like one-loss Michigan State.
The Big East hasn't exactly been a powerhouse in football for a few years now, but at the very least they are usually able to muster a champion that is able to feast on the sub-par competition and warrant legitimate BCS consideration. Cincinnati did so last year, and teams like West Virginia and Pitt are generally respectable, but not this season. This season, the Big East has been extremely average, if not mediocre, and yet at the end of the day the team that emerges at the top of that conference will likely get a trip to the Orange Bowl.
Here is a revolutionary thought: Rules in place that prevent unworthy teams from getting to a BCS game, even if they are from an automatic qualifying conference, and replaces them with a team that actually deserves to be considered among the nation's elite?
Here is how I would see that work: Let's say an automatic qualifying conference doesn't have a team ranked in the top 15 of the BCS standings. In my BCS, that conference then forfeits its automatic bid and its spot becomes another at-large bid for a more deserving team to fill.
This year that rule would eliminate the Big East's automatic bid and give it to a more deserving team like Michigan State, or to any of the two-loss teams that are in the top ten and are fighting for an at large bid. Even Boise State would warrant a BCS bid over the Big East champ in my opinion. Those teams would look a lot better in a BCS bowl than four-loss UConn or three-loss West Virginia would.
I know that the BCS isn't likely to change any time soon, but hey, I can dream, can't I? The fact is that the Big Ten can claim three teams that deserve a spot in the BCS this season, but because of automatic qualifier rules, a mediocre squad from the Big East will be there instead, and to me that's not right.Something should be done to ensure that it is the nation's best teams playing on the game's grandest stage each year.
Does UConn deserve a BCS bowl bid? Have any better ideas to solve this particular BCS problem? Let Ryan know at rmevans2@wisc.edu
