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Whether or not you were aware, at the conclusion of the current college football season, the BCS deck could be re-shuffled. The current "6-league" automatic qualification format is subject to review, as follows (from the official BCS website):
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"Mathematical standards of performance will be applied to determine the number of conferences whose champions will automatically qualify for a BCS game after the 2008 and 2009 regular seasons. The champions of no fewer than five conferences and no more than seven conferences will have annual automatic berths in the BCS bowl games.
The standards will be based on results from the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 regular seasons, using institutions that are members of the conferences during the 2007 season.
The data will include the following for each conference (1) the ranking of the highest-ranked team in the final BCS standings each year, (2) the final regular-season rankings of all conference teams in the computer rankings used by the BCS each year and (3) the number of teams in the top 25 of the final BCS standings each year.
Conference agreements with bowls will continue. The Pac-10 and Big Ten champions will host the Rose Bowl if their teams are not in the BCS national championship game. Likewise, the Southeastern Conference champion will host the Sugar Bowl, ACC champion will host the Orange Bowl and Big 12 champion will host the Fiesta Bowl."
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Obviously, what stands out from above is that one more league COULD receive automatic qualification status for the following two seasons. Clearly, the WAC and MWC are the only two leagues even in the discussion, but since no one knows exactly what the new standards will be, even that assertion is debatable.
In other words, without knowing what numerical coefficient a league has to attain to secure an automatic qualifcation berth, how does one know how close or how far away a league is?
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In terms of accumulating "points," the WAC is riding Boise State's BCS appearance from last season, along with Hawaii (and Boise State's) strong BCS showings this season, while the MWC will still reap benefits from Utah's 2004 BCS run.
In terms of total "BCS finishes" (prior to this season), the MWC actually leads the WAC, 3-2. In 2004: Utah was 6th and Boise State 9th in the final regular season BCS standings. In 2005, TCU was 14th, and in 2006, Boise State was 8th and BYU 20th. Of course, this season, the WAC has two ranked teams and is poised to take the lead in the 4-year "sliding scale."
However, considering the other 6 leagues will have had multiple BCS bids and consistently high BCS rankings from top to bottom, I can't imagine either the WAC or MWC achieving a standard that would qualify for "automatic" status--meaning more or the same for at least the next two years.
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Tomorrow: we get into BYU-CSU...thank goodness it's game week once again. Can I get an "amen?"
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