USF best chance at a BCS bowl

[Joe]

Actually its 2010...

The 2010 is the last year of the contract. In 2008 new standards are comming forth that will evaluate conferences on a year to year basis.

"The new BCS standards (2008) will measure the quality of the conference's depth over a four-year period in determining automatic bids, relative to the other conferences. " - Jim Palm CollegeBCS.com

These will start with the 2004 season results and move on from there.

[BullDice]

Doesn't the Big East have to have a team finish in the top 12, if not, a school from C-USA, WAC, MWC, MAC, or Sun Belt could take the BE spot for that year if one of those teams finishes in the top 12 above the Big East.  We have an automatic bid until the 2008 season.  Also, after reading WVU's board, they really like ECU and think their program is going to be really good soon.

[Guest]

The 2010 is the last year of the contract. In 2008 new standards are comming forth that will evaluate conferences on a year to year basis.

"The new BCS standards (2008) will measure the quality of the conference's depth over a four-year period in determining automatic bids, relative to the other conferences. " - Jim Palm CollegeBCS.com

These will start with the 2004 season results and move on from there.

Looks like you were right. I stand corrected:

From the BCS Coordinator Kevin Weisberg:

Will you have seven automatic conferences?

Seven automatics is just what's possible. There's no guarantee there will be seven automatics. There could be five, there could be six, there could be seven for that two-year block. So we're set through the first two years of the new agreement with the same six conferences having automatic qualification berths. This evaluation will occur, and it could change for the final two years for this agreement. That's years three and four of the new agreement, which is the regular seasons of 2008 and 2009.

How will the evaluation work?...

We will be evaluating conferences over a four-year period based on the average rank of the highest ranked team, and that's pretty similar to the standard that existed previously. In addition, we will look at a conference's overall strength. We'll be looking at every member of the conference and determining an average of the conference based on that overall strength. Those two pieces form the primary evaluation. If conferences are among the top six in that evaluation then they'll be held up in comparison to make sure all conferences look alike. In other words, how many teams in the top 25 and how they compare to one another. There's kind of a two-step process here. One is to look at average rank and overall strength, and if you're clearly among the top six in that approach, then there will be a further evaluation of top 25 comparison. Even with that structure, there will be a provision that would allow a conference to be considered if it was not clearly similar to five of the others. It will be some sort of opportunity for a conference to make its case.

http://www.bcsfootball.org/news.cfm?headline=91

The good news is that Louisville in 2004 will be counted toward the Big East.

How does Louisville fit in with the Big East?

What we're taking forward as a recommendation is that your conference membership at the time of evaluation is what will be evaluated. The reason for that is that we're trying to get an assessment looking forward of the prospective strength of the conference, even though it will be based on past performance. So Louisville will count under that provision, assuming the report is accepted, in the Big East Conference.

[Joe]

Regardless the Big East will keep their bid. Starting next year if a non BCS school is in the top 12 (if there are 2 the top 1 from that) they will go to a BCS Bowl, as they have added the 5th game.