The Greatest Rose Bowl That Never Was

Seems like even the staunchest BCS bashers are okay with the Auburn and Oregon National Championship Game. Part of me is disappointed that the pro-TCU ranting wasn’t anywhere nearly as loud as the pro-Boise State was prior to their loss to Nevada. I think that is because deep down, pundits know TCU recruits better athletes, has a championship history, and has “sold-out” to the BCS by agreeing to join the Big East.

But I digress. There should be outrage about the BCS this year, and it’s not being written about because it is a non-AQ doing the screwing. You see all the bitching and moaning about the BCS made an impact on the BCS team selection guidelines. The revision came in 2009 and it makes the Rose Bowl automatically select a qualified non-AQ team if the Rose Bowl loses a team to the National Championship Game. That is how we ended up with TCU playing Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

That clause that sent TCU to Pasadena just happened to rob us of a traditional Pac-10/Big Ten Rose Bowl, which this season would have matched Stanford and Wisconsin, the 2 most exciting teams in College Football not named Auburn or Oregon. Not that TCU and Wisconsin isn’t a good matchup, but considering TCU showed defensive vulnerability late in the season against San Diego State, the Badgers may run all over the Horned Frogs. 

Which matchup would you rather see? Vote on the poll on the right!

It wasn’t just the Rose Bowl that was affected; the TCU selection trickled down to give us unexciting matchups in the Fiesta Bowl (oklahoma vs UConn) and the Orange Bowl (Virginia Tech vs Stanford). Under the old provision we would have likely ended up with the following matchups: Rose Bowl – Stanford vs Wisconsin, Fiesta Bowl – oklahoma vs TCU, and Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs UConn, the Sugar Bowl and National Championship Game remaining the same. All of which would have been more evenly matched!

Oh well, all we can do now is sit back and enjoy the bowls. And to enjoy the Bowl Season even more, I invite you to join the Kanan Sports Bowl Pick ‘Em game. To join simply go to http://y.ahoo.it/F8ddHadi and sign up with your Yahoo account, no password is necessary.

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-Kanan