2007 Bowl Championship Series analysis
Contents
Which teams were available for BCS games?
A list of the teams that were available for BCS games, and where they ended up.
1 |
Ohio State |
Big 10 champs |
automatic bid |
National Championship Game |
2 |
LSU |
SEC champs |
automatic bid |
National Championship Game |
3 |
Virginia Tech |
ACC champs |
automatic bid |
Orange Bowl |
4 |
Oklahoma |
Big 12 champs |
automatic bid |
Fiesta Bowl |
5 |
Georgia |
SEC |
at large bid |
Sugar Bowl |
6 |
Missouri |
Big 12 |
|
|
7 |
USC |
Pac 10 champs |
automatic bid |
Rose Bowl |
8 |
Kansas |
Big 12 |
at large bid |
Orange Bowl |
9 |
West Virginia |
Big East champs |
automatic bid |
Fiesta Bowl |
10 |
Hawaii |
WAC champs |
automatic bid |
Sugar Bowl |
11 |
Arizona State |
Pac 10 |
|
|
12 |
Florida |
SEC |
|
|
13 |
Illinois |
Big 10 |
at large bid |
Rose Bowl |
14 |
Boston College |
ACC |
|
|
Which teams get automatic BCS bids?
- The 6 BCS conference schools get automatic bids (ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East).
- Any non-BCS conference champion gets an automatic bid if it finishes in the top 12 (Hawaii from the WAC).
How do the matchups get set?
- Top 2 teams go to National Championship Game.
- Other teams with automatic bids are slotted based on pre-existing bowl ties.
- Rose Bowl -- Pac 10 vs. Big 10
- Sugar Bowl -- SEC
- Fiesta Bowl -- Big 12
- Orange Bowl -- ACC
Remaining teams are selected in order by the bowls themselves from the pool of eligible teams.
What are the initial matchups?
The Rose Bowl "loses" Ohio State and the Sugar Bowl "loses" LSU to the National Championship Game.
Based on the rules above, the matchups become:
National Championship Game |
Ohio State vs. LSU |
Rose Bowl |
USC vs. ??? |
Sugar Bowl |
??? vs. ??? |
Orange Bowl |
Virginia Tech vs. ??? |
Fiesta Bowl |
Oklahoma vs. ??? |
What are the at-large bids?
This leaves 5 slots that need to be filled, and we already know that West Virginia and Hawaii must be selected at some point.
- Rose Bowl picks first and selects Illinois (as expected, since they are inclined to take the best-available Big 10 team).
- Sugar Bowl picks second and selects Georgia (as expected, since they are inclined to take the best-available SEC team).
- Orange Bowl picks third and selects Kansas (this is a very controversial selection).
- Fiesta Bowl picks fourth and selects West Virginia (they must take either West Virginia or Hawaii).
- Sugar Bowl picks fifth and must select Hawaii.
Who got left out?
Missouri has a strong argument for being left out, and the Orange Bowl should be forced to justify and explain the selection of Kansas over Missouri.
Consider:
- Missouri finished ranked ahead of Kansas in all of the final polls (both human and computer).
- Missouri finished ranked ahead of Kansas in the final BCS poll.
- Missouri's only losses were to Oklahoma (twice), who finished 4th and won the Big 12.
- Missouri beat Kansas head-to-head, earning the right to play against Oklahoma for the Big 12 championship.
- Missouri played in the conference championship game and Kansas did not.
Also:
- Someone from the Big 12 had to get left out. The Big 12 had 3 teams in the top 8, but BCS rules only allow 2 teams per conference in BCS games.
- Illinois is lucky that the Rose Bowl cares more about tradition than about the most deserving teams being showcased. Though Illinois did beat Ohio State, so on some level I can accept Illinois getting a BCS bid.
Various thoughts
- Conference championship games are horrible, and the rule change from several years ago that paved the way for them should be removed to make an extra week available for a theoretical playoff system.
- Ohio State backs into the national championship game by not having to play a conference championship game.
- Missouri gets left out after losing their conference championship game, and misses out on a BCS spot to Kansas, who did not play in the conference championship game. The reason Kansas didn't play? Missouri beat Kansas head to head to claim the spot in that game.
- Georgia misses out on a chance to play for the national championship by not being in their conference championship game and having a chance to play LSU. LSU jumps over Georgia after beating the lower-ranked Tennessee.
- The location of the National Championship game should not be set until after the teams are chosen. It is unfair that LSU is basically going to get a home game in New Orleans for the National Championship.