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Relative to the day's earlier post about the lack of raw data in the release of the BCS automatic qualification standards, I received e-mails from two readers providing links to more comprehensive explanations than were offered in the cited ESPN.com article.
I then went to bcsfootball.org and found that the site actually links to the article that probably should have been posted on ESPN.com to begin with.
Here is the article that better explains the qualification criteria.
Note that the banner headline lists "2010" when it should probably say "2011." Also note that as ESPN has taken over the broadcasting/internet rights to the BCS, its website format has been incorporated at bcsfootball.org.
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Here's a good article referred to me by e-mailer Kendall Hulet. This article includes numbers provided by college stats guru Jerry Palm.
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Thanks to e-mailers Greg Welch and Thomas Hortin for providing me the following links, all of which do a nice job further outlining how the standards are calculated and how conferences currently stack up:
High in the Blue (byucougs.com)
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Bottom line: the MWC is well-positioned in the "highest-ranked team" and "number of teams in the BCS Top 25" categories, but exponentially better performances from the bottom six teams in the league would be required to fulfill the "final regular season rankings of all conference teams" standard required for automatic qualification after the 2011 season.
Ironically, better in-league performances from those six teams would probably hamper the "show horses" in BYU, Utah and TCU.
Assuming no major shift in the power structure of the MWC, and that the Big Three remain at the top and nationally-ranked, the league appears to be in very good shape to attempt to qualify via the "Presidential Oversight Committee Exemption" route.
Adding Boise State (were that to happen before the 2011 season) would ostensibly strengthen the MWC's automatic qualification case, although probably not guarantee it.
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