The Pac-12 conference officially welcomes Colorado and Utah to the conference Friday, marking the official start of the new Pacific 12 Conference, which has been restructured with the addition of the two new teams.

Utah joins the expanded conference after leaving the Mountain West Conference, while Colorado joins after leaving the Big 12.

Both teams agreed to the move in 2010, but finished out their 2010 seasons with their respective conferences.

The addition of an 11th and 12th team allows the Pac-12 conference to hold a college football conference championship game and for the conference to break into two divisions.

The divisions are as follows:

North		South
	Oregon Ducks		Arizona Wildcats
	Oregon State Beavers		Arizona State Sun Devils
	Washington Huskies		USC Trojans
	Washington State Cougars		UCLA Bruins
	California Golden Bears		Utah Utes
	Stanford Cardinal		Colorado Buffaloes

–

The regular season champions of the North and South divisions will play in the inaugural Pac-12 Conference Championship Game, which will be played December 3, 2011 at the stadium of the team with the best record in the conference.

The winner of the game will also be guaranteed a spot among one of the five BCS Bowls, as part of the Pac-12 Conference’s automatic agreement with the BCS.

Oregon and Auburn — two undefeated teams from power conferences at the top of the BCS standings. Not too surprising.

TCU, Boise State and Utah — three teams from non-AQ conferences at 3-4-5. Pretty surprising to the average college football traditionalist.

But what does it all mean for the BCS prospects of the three non-AQ teams?

Well, the answers might disappoint some of those team’s faithful.

When the 2011 bowl selection procedure was outlined before the beginning of this season, a new provision was added in the set of rules for qualification as a non-AQ conference school.

The Rose Bowl’s selection would be as thus:

Starting with the 2011 Rose Bowl and extending until the 2014 edition of the granddaddy of them all, the first time the Rose Bowl loses one of its traditional hosts (Big Ten or Pac-10 Champion) to the BCS National Championship Game, and a non-BCS team automatically qualifies for the BCS, that non-BCS team will be selected by the Rose Bowl.

“Great!” thought most supporters of the non-AQ schools, a chance for a non-traditional team to crash the most traditional bowl of them all — the Rose Bowl.

But as the season wares on, this provision could cause a little more trouble than had been expected.

You see, if more than one of these three non-AQ teams finishes the season undefeated, there remains the possibility of one of them getting left out of the BCS altogether.

Yes that’s right, an undefeated BCS top-four team could theoretically be left without a BCS bowl bid, and could be staring down a matchup with a middling Pac-10 team or a Mid-American Conference team in a middling bowl.

Not exactly the national attention that you might expect an undefeated BCS top-four team to get.

Let’s see how this could go down with some scenarios that have been going around the web recently:

Scenario 1 – Brian Murphy / BCS Guru

BCS NGC: Alabama/Auburn vs. Oregon
Rose Bowl: TCU vs. Big Ten Champ
Sugar Bowl: Alabama/Auburn vs. Big Ten Runner Up
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. Big East Champ
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. Big 12 Runner Up

In this scenario, the SEC Champion is either unbeaten Auburn or one-loss Alabama who beats Auburn and wins the SEC. If either of those scenarios play out, its likely that that team will play for the NCG. Oregon also runs the table and the Big Ten provides two very attractive teams from the group of Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan State. TCU beats Utah and remains ahead of Boise in the BCS.

After the NCG takes its teams, the Rose Bowl is awarded the Big Ten champ, and takes the highest ranked non-AQ school, in this case TCU. The Sugar Bowl takes the SEC runner up and in fear of seeing another SEC toppled by a non-AQ passes up undefeated Boise State — instead taking the second Big Ten team. The Orange Bowl takes the ACC Champ and fearing the poor traveling capacity of Boise State (plus a possible rematch between Virginia Tech and Boise) passes on the Broncos too. The Fiesta Bowl takes the Big 12 Champ and is forced to take the last pick Big East Champ.

No Boise State! Where are they headed? The Humanitarian Bowl — which has the first choice of WAC teams. The Humanitarian Bowl is played in Boise on December 18th.

Scenario 2

BCS NGC: Alabama/Auburn vs. Oregon
Rose Bowl: Boise State vs. Big Ten Champ
Sugar Bowl: Alabama/Auburn vs. Big Ten Runner Up
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. Big East Champ
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. Big 12 Runner Up

This scenario is the same as the last one except Utah beats TCU on Saturday. Utah would be hard pressed to pass the Broncos in the BCS standings and remains at No. 4.

This time, the Sugar Bowl seriously has no interest in seeing Utah beat another SEC runner up, so passes them, while the Orange and Fiesta Bowl are similarly uninterested and unable to take the Utes.

No Utah! Where are they headed? The Maaco Bowl — which has first choice of Mountain West teams. The Maaco Bowl is played in Las Vegas on December 22nd.

Scenario 3

BCS NGC: Alabama/Auburn vs. Boise State/TCU
Rose Bowl: Pac-10 Champ vs. Big Ten Champ
Sugar Bowl: Alabama/Auburn vs. Big Ten Runner Up
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ vs. Big East Champ
Orange Bowl: ACC Champ vs. Big 12 Runner Up

In this case, the BCS is truly busted, sending a non-AQ team to the championship game against the SEC champion if Oregon loses somewhere down the stretch. The Rose Bowl is no longer required to take a non-AQ as the one automatically qualifying team (Boise or TCU) is sent to the BCS title game and is free to pick the Pac-10 and Big Ten matchup they crave.

Again, where’s the room for the winner of Saturday’s matchup or even Boise if TCU can make it to the championship game? There is no effective room for the second undefeated non-AQ team, and no real reason for the so-called “Cartel” to open a spot for the second non-AQ even though they have one in the title game.

Last year, with just two non-AQ teams showing that they deserved a place among the national title contenders, we got both into the BCS, albeit against each other in the Fiesta Bowl.

Now in 2010 with three teams showing their worth, we could only get one.

Dubbing years with catchy monikers seems to be a favorite pastime of the national media — for example, baseball just had its “Year of the Pitcher,” where it was pitching and not offense that dominated the headlines.

The year in college football thus far could easily be classified as a “Year of the BCS Buster,” as it has been the mid-major powers and not the traditional giants of the game which have taken over the headlines around the country.

And in this year of unexpected contenders, this weekend could hold a defining moment in the hopes of the non-AQ BCS contenders.

The marquee non-AQ matchup of the year, Utah-TCU has dominated the coverage of the coming weekend — and with good reason. The winner of this matchup of Mountain West powers could go a long way towards a BCS bowl bid, and if a few dominoes fall in the right way, even a national title game bid.

Both teams have rode undefeated streaks to the tenth week of the season, although Utah has had less fanfare along the way than TCU. And not entirely surprisingly, neither team’s hype has compared to that of the undefeated run that Boise State has put together.

But as the BCS rankings stand now, No. 3 TCU is in a stronger position than Boise is at its fourth spot — a surprise result considering the extraordinary hope non-AQ supporters had put behind the Broncos to start the season.

Now it seems likely that a victory in one of four or five marquee matchups of the season could bring either team to the forefront of the race for the top non-AQ spot and possibly the first substitute if either Oregon or Auburn should stumble down the road.

Of course, many other matchups will have something to say about the plausibility of any of the three top non-AQ teams getting to Glendale on January 10.

One such matchup will join the TCU-Utah tussle as the headlining game of the weekend as Alabama and LSU play an effective knockout game for the SEC West title and long shot chance at the title game.

Both teams still rest in the BCS top ten and a victory in Baton Rouge on Saturday could open the door for a surprise visit to the title game from either team, although Alabama’s positioning at No. 6 sets up as a better striking position than LSU’s tenth spot, although a Tiger victory would do a great deal towards improving that positioning.

Many other BCS hopefuls will be in action, including the duo atop the most recent BCS standings — Oregon and Auburn. Both return home after tough week nine tests and welcome visitors to their home grounds — Oregon taking on Pac-10 foe Washington while Auburn takes a visit from FCS Chattanooga.

Victories are of the utmost importance this late in the season, as there is precious little time to make up for stumbles in the final weeks of the season, so all of the BCS hopefuls will need to bring their best against upset-minded underdogs.

Boise State will face a tough test against improved and dangerous Hawaii at home, while BCS conference contenders Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Nebraska all take to the road against difficult conference opponents.

In this “Year of the BCS Buster” every week seems to give us a new storyline and opens up the possibility of the biggest BCS bust of all time, and winning is at a supreme premium with favorites seemingly falling every week.

Stay tuned.

I’ll leave this here for those looking for the new Mountain West Logo. Enjoy!

This is ninth in a series of conference profiles as part of BCS Know How’s season preview. Today’s conference is the Mountain West Conference.

Conference: Mountain West Conference (MWC)

Active Since: 1999

Current Member Schools: Air Force Falcons, Brigham Young (BYU) Cougars, Colorado State Rams, New Mexico Lobos, San Diego State Aztecs, Texas Christian (TCU) Horned Frogs, UNLV Rebels, Utah Utes, Wyoming Cowboys. (9)

Bowl Affiliations: New Mexico Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Poinsettia Bowl, Independence Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl. (5)

2009 Results:
Conference Champion – TCU
Conference Runner-up – BYU
Overall Bowl Record: 4-1 (Bowl Challenge Cup Champion)
AP All-Americans: TCU DE Jerry Hughes (1st team), BYU TE Dennis Pitta (2nd)

2010 Outlook: Three top-25 teams, a BCS bowl bid and a Bowl Challenge championship. Sounds like a BCS conference right?

Actually, it was the 2009 edition of the Mountain West Conference, a conference that in the past few years has been able to produce not only some of the best non-BCS conference action, but also has seemingly mastered the role of BCS-buster, submitting three teams — TCU last season and Utah in two other seasons — to the BCS.

2010 finds the MWC at an all-time high, coming off one of its best seasons and returning most of the skill that helped the conference make so much noise last year. Of course, any conversation about a repeat of last year has to begin with TCU, who not only made their way to a Fiesta Bowl bid, but also finished fourth in the final BCS standings, the highest ever finish for a non-BCS school.

The Horned Frogs return star quarterback Andy Dalton and most of the explosive offense that averaged nearly 40 points per game last season. And despite losing 1st-team All-American DE Jerry Hughes, the Frogs’ defense returns seven of 11 starters. However, the schedule looks quite daunting for the Frogs, with games at SMU and Utah plus visits from Oregon State and Baylor looming.

If TCU is to falter anywhere along the line, Utah is poised to retake control of the conference and can easily make their way to another BCS bowl. The Utes take on two tough BCS opponents, the Big East’s Pittsburgh and independent Notre Dame, along with tests against TCU and BYU. If they can make their way through that schedule unscathed, it would be hard to refuse the Utes a BCS bid.

Although the conference has been the domain of the Utes and Frogs these past few seasons the conference has quietly become strong from top to bottom, and any of a variety of teams could challenge the two for conference bragging rights.

BYU, who toppled both Sam Bradford and Oklahoma early in 2009, finished 11-2 last year and looked as strong as any MWC team, will compete again despite losing QB Max Hall to the pros. Air Force and Wyoming looked revived in ’09 and are poised to continue improving in 2010. Wyoming’s young gun Austyn Carta-Samuels could challenge Dalton as the conference’s player of the year and could make some early noise against BCS schools like Texas and Boise State.

Its not a surprise to find a strong Mountain West anymore, but the depth of the conference this season could go a long way towards solidifying its spot among the Football Bowl Subdivision elite, and even a BCS automatic bid somewhere down the line when the board reviews the automatic qualifiers in 2012.

2010 Heisman Hopefuls: TCU QB Andy Dalton, Wyoming QB Austyn Carta-Samuels

BCS Know How’s 2010 Predictions:
Conference Champion – TCU (11-1, 8-0)
Conference Runner-up – Utah (10-2, 7-1)
Heisman Finalists: None

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.

As far as bowl games go, the Armed Forces Bowl isn’t half bad.

Good name, late in the bowl season (December 31^st), ESPN coverage and two solid conference ties, the C-USA and Mountain West Conference.

Usually, the winner of the MWC would be headed to Forth Worth to play in this very worthy bowl game, but this year its just a little different for the non-BCS conference schools.

See this year, both TCU and Boise State (of the WAC) have good shots at making a BCS bowl, and for TCU to avoid a date in Texas on New Year’s Eve and head to a BCS bowl, this weekend’s match up with Utah is of the utmost importance.

The Horned Frogs have climbed all the way up the BCS standings in the last four weeks to No. 4, the highest ranked non-BCS school in the country. Where they sit now, TCU would be assured of a BCS bowl bid, but the Utes stand in their way.

A victory by Utah would likely give them the MWC conference title, and send them to either the aforementioned Armed Forces Bowl or the Humanitarian Bowl, but this week all they’re focused on is the Horned Frogs.

The Utes have been in just this situation in the past. In fact, last year an undefeated Utes team faced a game Horned Frogs squad with the chance for a BCS bowl bid for Utah on the line, and Utah prevailed, making its way to the Sugar Bowl. The Utes hope the favor is not returned to TCU.

This MWC showdown highlights a weekend of very important conference matchups.

As we come down the stretch of the college football season, for the teams not vying for BCS glory, these weeks will decide whether they go to a bowl, or sit at home and watch 68 other teams play one final game in one of the 34 bowls this season.

Also at stake this weekend is a Rose Bowl bid from the Big 10. Iowa, who had been coasting to the Big 10 conference title and a shot at the Roses, experienced their first loss last weekend. Now they face Ohio State, the winner likely to win the conference and a date in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

The triumvirate ruling over college football this season – Texas, Alabama and Florida – all go on the road this weekend to weaker in conference opponents, looking to avoid upsets and put dampers on both their opponents in-conference and overall records.

The season winds down and bowl games begin to fill, crunch time for the nation’s best is approaching. This is when college football is at its finest, with the postseason on the line, and as much as you think you know about the season thus far may have absolutely nothing to do with what we could see in the coming weeks.

Those weeks start now.

Enjoy.