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CHICAGO (AP) -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany says some tweaking to the Bowl Championship Series rules has given greater access to the Rose Bowl to teams from outside the six conferences with automatic BCS bids -- such as Utah.
The Big Ten and Pacific-10 champions are contractually bound to play in the Rose Bowl unless one of those teams qualifies for the national championship game.
Starting with the 2010 season and running through the 2013 season, the first time the Rose Bowl loses one of its conference champions and a team from the so-called non-BCS leagues earns a BCS bid, the Rose Bowl must take that team.
Since the BCS was implemented in 1998, a team from a conference outside the automatic qualifying leagues has never played in the game.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
