The University of Southern California’s 55-14 victory over Oklahoma in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl to claim the 2004 BCS title was a definite statement of dominance.

Now the BCS is making a definite statement of its own.

BCS executive director, addressing the media at Big 12 Media Day in Dallas, Texas, told the assembled crowd that if USC’s appeal of the NCAA’s sanctions in regards to former Trojan Reggie Bush is to fail, the 2004 BCS title will be vacated.

Currently, the Trojans have been levied a two-year postseason ban and the loss of 20 scholarships, however the school is appealing the ruling to reduce both sentences by half. ‘SC was also docked the 13 wins from the 2004 season, but because the NCAA does not control the BCS title, it could not directly rule for the school to vacate that title.

Hancock’s announcement solidifies weeks of speculation as to what the BCS would do with the NCAA ruling. Many had also speculated whether the ’04 championship will be given to another team, namely Oklahoma (12-1 in 2004) or Auburn (13-0), but the term “vacation” means a simple removal — not awarding it to another team — as a “forfeiture” would.

The records from the 2004 edition of the Trojans will be removed from record books, including those statistics which reflect on Bush, former coach Pete Carroll and USC all-time wins.

Now that conference realignment talks have — at long last — settled down, let’s take a quick look as to where this leaves the FBS conferences moving forward.

First and most importantly, none of the changes you heard about last month will not be taking affect this season. The 11 BCS and non-BCS conferences you’ve come to know and love remain in tact for at least one more season.

However, starting in the 2011-12 season (still more than a year away), things will begin to get a little unfamiliar.

The first so-called “domino” to fall in last month’s conference realignment fiasco was surprisingly Nebraska’s move to the Big 10 conference. The Cornhuskers were an integral part of the Big 12, joining in 1996 along with the rest of the former Big Eight conference.

The Big 12 then saw Colorado follow in Nebraska’s footsteps out the conference door, with the Buffalos instead deciding to take to the west coast, joining the Pacific-10 conference.

The Utah Utes took a step in the same direction, vacating their seat at the head of the BCS-buster table as a part of the Mountain West conference to join an automatically-qualifying conference in the BCS-automatic-qualifying Pac-10.

As the Utes departure was written in the tea leaves for some time, the Mountain West went about replacing them before they had even made the announcement and came back with the Utes’ co-hosts at the top of the BCS-buster world, bringing Western Athletic Conference member Boise State into the MWC mix.

With the four teams sending shockwaves around the college football landscape in short order, more moves were expected, but conference members showed surprising loyalty, and the rest of the conference world was left unchanged.

So to wrap:

• Colorado and Nebraska left the Big 12, leaving the Big 12 with 10 teams.
• Boise State left the WAC and joined the MWC leaving the conference with nine teams after Utah left the conference.
• Colorado and Utah joined the Pac-10 giving the conference 12 teams.
• Nebraska joined the Big 10, leaving the conference with 12 teams.

With the net net gains and losses as such in regards to the rules of the BCS:

• With 12 teams the Pac-10 will be able to hold a conference championship game.
• With 12 teams the Big 10 will be able to hold a conference championship game.
• With only 10 teams the Big 12 will no long be able to hold a conference championship game.
• The Utah Utes is the first “BCS buster” school to move from a non-BCS conference to an automatically-qualifying conference.
• The MWC’s qualification and affiliation with the BCS remains unchanged.

Remember none of these changes are effective immediately, with the first move not planned until the beginning of the 2011-12 academic year.

With what many consider the best playoff system in any sport talking expansion, many might next turn to the BCS to expand or change.

The argument has been around for years. Why is the college football system so unwilling to change? Why don’t they just follow the incredibly successful footsteps of March Madness? What would be so wrong about a playoff system?

Each side has its pros and cons, things that make them unique, and reasons for change and reasons to be conservative.

Without taking sides, here are some of the arguments:

In college football, every game matters. In college basketball, March Madness is the only time people really pay attention.

With a 12 or 13 game season in college football, supporters of the current bowl system say that each game makes a huge impact on the postseason, as if each game itself were a playoff game. A 30+ game season in college basketball can sometime drag on for fans, and yes, some fans don’t pay very close attention to the regular season.

Yet if you turn on SportsCenter on a weekday night, college basketball games featuring ranked teams still seem pretty important to them, and blogs, media and fans in general do really seem to care if the raucous fans around the country are any indication of a January conference matchup.

In college basketball, the best two teams at the end play. In college football, many would argue that doesn’t always happen.

In 2004, a year many consider the BCS’s biggest mistake, Auburn — an undefeated team and SEC Champions — was left out of the BCS National Title Game (that year the Orange Bowl). Tiger fans cried foul, saying that the two best teams were not playing for the championship, and they were unfairly excluded from a chance at a title.

While Tiger fans may have been justified, they were powerless to stop the Oklahoma vs. USC matchup that would occur.

In college basketball, 65 teams get a shot at the title. After five rounds, two teams are left to battle it out.

But take 2010 for example. Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse were thought to be the best teams in the nation all year. Yet, now that we’ve reached the Final Four, where are they? They lost in earlier rounds, and will not get a chance to compete for the title. So are the best teams in the nation competing this weekend in Indianapolis? Butler, Michigan State, Duke and West Virginia are all good, but very few would have said that these were the best four teams in the nation before the Madness started.

So which way is better?

A 65-team tournament is more feasible for college basketball. A tournament of any size isn’t really feasible for college football.

The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is 120 teams large. Division I basketball is 342 teams large. Could you really find a tournament style that would be as inclusive for football as the NCAA tournament is for basketball? Plus the schedule of football directly conflicts with college finals and winter vacation, how could you resolve the issues with academics?

Its difficult for anyone to come to a consensus on the topic. Numerous sites have tried to engineer playoff systems for college football including Yahoo!, BCS Evolution and BCS Sucks among literally thousands of ideas scattered across the internet.

Yet no two can come to final conclusion about how it should work while still keeping everyone happy. It seems nearly impossible.

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There are many other arguments to be made on both sides here. The issues probably wont be resolved anytime soon, but the arguments likely wont stop either.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Who’s the favorite for the 2011 BCS National Title Game?

Yep, easy logic would land any marginally informed college football fan at the Alabama Crimson Tide.

A repeat doesn’t seem too unlikely seeing as freshman running back Trent Richardson, redshirt junior quarterback Greg McElroy, coach Nick Saban and yes, Heisman winner sophomore running back Mark Ingram all return.

But of the entirety of the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision, who would be be next in line?

Well I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t count out Boise State.

Yes, the very same Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference,  Fiesta Bowl Statue of Liberty and Battle of BCS-Buster fame. In years past, the best the Broncos could possibly hope for was a BCS bowl bid, but this year might just be a little different. First let’s look at the Broncos non-conference opponents:

vs. Virginia Tech (Sept. 6th)
vs. Wyoming (Sept. 18th)
vs. Oregon State (Sept. 25)
vs. Toledo (Oct. 9)

Then they’ll have an eight-game Western Athletic Conference schedule, during which they went 8-0 last season. Not too tough a schedule, right?

Now think about where they might start the season in the polls… In all likelyhood top-10 if not top-five on the strength of their Fiesta Bowl victory over TCU at the end of last season and the fact that they’re returning almost all of their starters from last year, including quarterback Kellen Moore.

So a couple losses combined with moving slowly up the rankings with wins over very beatable teams, plus the always friendly computer rankings for an unbeaten team, and what might we have? An undefeated Boise State team playing for the BCS National Championship Game.

Yes you heard me right. The Boise State Broncos could very easily make their way to the National Title Game next year, and all they would really need is to go undefeated and have three or four teams lose ahead of them. If the past few seasons are any indication, more than three or four preseason top-five teams are going to lose at least once before the season is up meaning that Boise has a legitimate shot.

Forecasters and gamblers alike also like this proposition, as Boise State has been installed as the second favorite to win the BCS national title, at 12/1 odds according to bodog.com.

Could this finally be the year? Its still far far away, but this just gets you to thinking….

Recently, it has come to light that many of the BCS conference are looking to expand and realign.

The consequences of this move could have ripple effects around the college football landscape and have immediate and large effects on the Bowl Championship Series.

During the past few seasons, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Big 12 Conference have all been able to hold conference championship game because they all have 12 member schools. By the rules set out by the BCS, only conferences with 12 teams are allowed to hold conference championship games.

Teams from conferences that don’t have 12 teams have cried foul about the rule, saying that the ability of schools of these three conferences to hold a championship game and give one team another quality win gave those three conferences a better shot at securing a BCS National Title game bid, because of the effect of a final-week game on the human and computer elements of the BCS rankings.

And sure enough, this season saw the winner of the SEC Championship Game and the Big 12 Championship Game get bids to the national title game, a circumstance that was almost preordained before the season even started.

Now it has been revealed that the Big 10 and Pac 10 are both looking into securing enough teams to hold their own conference championship game. The reasons behind the expansion reach further than simply a boost in the BCS, as both are looking at gaining an upper hand in television rights negotiations, but the fact remains the same. Five conferences with 12 teams, and therefore five conference championship games would have a major impact on the BCS.

No longer would the Big 10 have the convience of waiting for good teams to loose and submit Ohio State to the BCS National Title game for all those years in the mid 2000′s. No longer would the Pac-10 be robbed of the chance to submit USC to the National Title game because they played a 6-6 UCLA on their final weekend, and not a 9-3 California or 8-4 Oregon State.

The Big 12 and SEC would no longer hold an upper hand on the final weekend, and the computers and even the human elements would have to notice. And this would change things drastically.

And with the current revolt in Congress and the Senate against the BCS, this move towards change could only further confuse what could be a huge opportunity for big change in the college football landscape and the way that the Football Bowl Subdivision crowns its champion.

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-BCSKnowHow.com

Harris Interactive Poll

The Harris Poll has delayed itself to increase anticipation for the BCS Bowl announcements later today, so here is the final Coaches’ Poll of the regular season. The Harris Poll will be posted as soon as it comes out.

USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Projected 2010 BCS Bowls

	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California. January 1st
	Ohio State Buckeyes
vs.
	Oregon Ducks
	Comment: Oregon made this matchup official on Thursday by clinching the Pac-10 Championship by defeated Oregon State. Ohio State clinched a spot in the Rose Bowl weeks ago, and now will prepare for the talented Duck attack
	Sugar Bowl New Orleans, Louisiana. January 1st
	Florida Gators
vs.
	TCU Horned Frogs
	Comment: TCU is assured a BCS bowl with their final BCS ranking as the highest ranked non-BCS school. Florida, after losing the SEC Championship Game will likely still receive a BCS bowl bid, and the Sugar Bowl will be happy to take a replacement SEC team after losing Alabama to the National Championship Game.
	Fiesta Bowl Glendale, Arizona. January 4th
	Boise State Broncos
vs.
	Iowa Hawkeyes
	Comment: Boise State continues to be the most attractive candidate for a BCS at-large selection that hasn’t already been assumed, and the Fiesta Bowl, after losing Big 12 Champ Texas to the National Title game, will want an attractive game. Boise State put together one of the greatest games in college football history at the Fiesta Bowl just a few years ago, and the Fiesta Bowl remembers it and will want more excitement. The Hawkeyes are the next most attractive candidates for at-large selection, and will likely land here.
	Orange Bowl Miami, Florida. January 5th
	Cincinnati Bearcats
vs.
	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
	Comment: Both teams need late comeback victories to clinch their respective conference championships, but pulled out victories late. The ACC and Big East Champs have met here many times before, and could easily be doing it again this year. Georgia Tech is assured of this bid as the ACC Champion.
	2009 Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game Pasadena, California. January 7th
	Alabama Crimson Tide
vs.
	Texas Longhorns
	Comment: While its not what we expected, this Alabama vs. Texas matchup has been in the cards for quite some time. After Alabama clinched the SEC championship earlier in the day, they replaced the Gators in this slot. The Longhorns followed suit in the Big 12, although had a bit more trouble, but won all the same. Therefore this matchup is basically in the books. Its gonna be a good one.

Oh what could have been.

We waiting weeks for this weekend to come, hoping that it would deliver the drama and intrigue that the rest of the season was missing, and it did not dissapoint.

Texas, playing in what was supposed to be a cakewalk of a Big 12 Championship Game instead needed instant replay on the clock and a 46-yard field goal that just sneaked in the uprights to clinch victory and a likely shot at the national title game.

Alabama and Florida were supposed to play in the season’s most intriguing game. Instead what we got was an Alabama romp, blowing out the Gators and likely clinching their shot at the national title.

So it’s likely that we’ll get that SEC Champ vs. Texas game when the last BCS standings are released tomorrow.

But it could have been much different.

If Texas had lost, we would have entered one of the messiest final BCS rankings in the system’s history, but we avoided that by the slimmest of margins.

So here’s our reality for tomorrow, and what we know so far:

• We know that Oregon and Ohio State will make the Rose Bowl game and continue the Big Ten vs. Pac-10 rivalry.
• We know that Cincinnati will receive a BCS bowl bid, we just don’t know from where.
• We know that Georgia Tech is going to get a bid to the Orange Bowl with their victory over Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, as the bowl and the conference have ties that allow for the conference champion to receive an automatic bid there.
• We are almost 100% sure that Alabama and Texas will meet for the national title game after winning every game they needed to in order to get to the biggest game of the season.
• We can also be pretty sure that Florida will receive a Sugar Bowl bid despite losing the SEC Championship Game, as the Sugar Bowl will likely want an SEC team despite the SEC Champ going to the National Title Game.
• Another thing that’s guaranteed: TCU will get a BCS bowl bid due to the BCS’s automatic bid qualifying policy for non-BCS schools.

So the six BCS conference bid are set, and two at-large bids are also nearly set in stone.

That leaves two openings. Iowa, Penn State, Boise State, Virginia Tech, LSU and BYU will all likely be eligible tomorrow.

It seems like the Big Ten teams that trail behind Ohio State; Iowa and Penn State, will be one of the at-large selections. The other selection cannot be a Big Ten team, but could be any of the other teams mentioned.

If logic holds up, Boise State would receive that bid, and we at BCS Know How project that they will in fact get that final bid.

Here’s a look at what the BCS standings might look like when they are released tomorrow:

Projected BCS Standings December 6th