So here’s how it would look twenty years ago, before even the Bowl Alliance was a gleam in someone’s eye, and the Big East was a basketball league:
ROSE: Oregon vs Wisconsin. 1 versus 4, and a real banging matchup natch.
SUGAR: Auburn vs TCU. 2 vs 3, setting up nicely for the winner to be national champion if Oregon falls.
ORANGE: Virginia Tech vs Oklahoma, which should work out nicely for the Hokies.
COTTON: Arkansas vs Stanford, which ought to be an offensive barnburner.
FIESTA: Boise State vs, I don’t know, Ohio State or somebody, who cares.
NOWHERE CLOSE TO JANUARY 1: Connecticut, which at 8-4 shouldn’t be anywhere better than the Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl.
What have we learned, kids?
1) The BCS doesn’t make anything better, and has a way of screwing good teams while helping out those that don’t deserve it.
2) Conference champions don’t deserve automatic berths in BCS bowls just by virtue of being a conference champion.
3) The Big East, by virtue of adding TCU, may now be the equal of the new-look Mountain West (Boise, Nevada, Fresno State, Air Force, and San Diego State all have at least the same record as Connecticut).
4) The WAC is no longer of any concern for BCS purposes, seeing as how it’s filling out its gaps with teams that are still in I-AA this year.
5) This is the weakest season in years for the Pac-10 (which couldn’t fill its bowl allotment) and the SEC (which was supremely lopsided) – and yet their champions, probably for just that reason, are the two undefeateds meeting for the title…
6) …on January 10. There are bowls now scattered over a span of almost three weeks. This is ridiculous.
7) New rule: now that there are 12 regular season games, you should have to post 7 wins to be eligible for a bowl. Any bowl left without teams shouldn’t be played anyway. A bowl is not a participation trophy.
8) Once again, look me in the eye and tell me that what we have now is better than how it was 20 years ago.