BCS National Championship Game: Notre Dame vs. Alabama, no argument.
Fiesta Bowl: Oregon vs. Kansas State — the apparent national title game two weeks ago — ditto.
Then the BCS, in terms of attractive matchups, falls apart, and the Big 12 is out a chunk of change because of it.
Northern Illinois, welcome to the BCS. Now, sell about 20,000 tickets.
Math and the Mid-American Conference shook up the bowl lineup Sunday.
The BCS standings were revealed, and because the Huskies finished No 16 in the standings and ahead of Big East champion Louisville (which was No. 21 in the BCS), the BCS was obligated to find a spot in a major bowl for the team that overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat 1-11 Kansas in September.
Northern Illinois’ lone loss in a 12-1 season? To Iowa, 18-17. The Hawkeyes finished 4-8.
The Huskies take those credentials to the Orange Bowl to face Florida State, carrying on a program bowl tradition that includes the GoDaddy.com, Humanitarian and International bowls in the previous three years.
What Northern Illinois won’t take to Miami is their coach, Dave Doeren. He’s already accepted the North Carolina State job.
This shock to the BCS system took out a Sugar Bowl that after Saturday’s developments was looking like a tantalizing Florida-Oklahoma matchup.
The Sooners would have been selected as an at-large team, the final piece to the BCS bowl lineup. As the projected last team in, Oklahoma became the first out, and landed in a nice spot: the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M.
Instead, the Sugar gets Florida-Louisville, while the Rose offers the traditional Big Ten-Pac 12 showdown that includes five-loss Wisconsin against Stanford.
Losing an at-large team will cost the Big 12 a $6.2 million share. The league and the five other major conferences still receive $23.6 million for its BCS participation, but it’s the Pacific-12 and SEC with second teams in the big bowls that get the bonus.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.