Utah & the BCS...Its a sham/shame.

[BullDoug]

The Utes may be the undoing of the BCS hopefully.  It appears they will not make a BCS bowl unless TX A&M beats TX in TX or Notre Dame & UCLA beats USC or Auburn loses badly to TN in the SEC championship.  If Auburn loses to GA, IMO (without doing the calculation) both GA & Auburn will probably BCS ranked higher than Utah.  This outcome proves that it is impossible for a nonBCS conference team to be ranked in the Top 6.  All D1A coaches from that point on should be screaming for a playoff.  The only escape left for the BCS is a Ute loss in the regular season or to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl.

[Markeymark]

Oklahoma and Texas will likely play in the Big 12 championship/TV revenue generation game. If Texas loses they might drop below Utah. Texas is overdue for their annual choke, anyway.

I still think Utah will be ahead of either Auburn or UGa at the end of the year.

[Apis Bull]

Guys,

You're getting ahead of yourselves.  Utah still has to beat Wyoming and BYU.  I'd be suprised if they win both of those.

[Guest AstroBull]

OU and Texas can't play each other in the championship game.  Both play in the Big 12 South.  It's most likely going to be either Nebraska or Iowa State that will face OU.

[Jim Johnson]

Let's look at this from a logical perspective (despite the fact that the BCS is not logical).

1 - USC will probably win out and remain #1.  They play Arizona, Notre Dame, and at UCLA.

2 - Oklahoma will probably win out and remain #2.  They play Nebraska and at Baylor.  Then they get the Big 12 North Champion (probably Colorado or Iowa State - Nebraska's loss to Oklahoma moves them back to third place - and if Colorado beats them, then the Cornhuskers won't make a bowl game).

3 - Auburn will also probably win out and remain #3.  They play Georgia and at Alabama, before playing Tennessee in the SEC Championship game).

4 - California is the best one-loss team in the country.  They play at Washington, home against Stanford, and then at Southern Mississippi.

5 - Wisconsin Go undefeated in the Big Ten and you can't jump over a one-loss Pac 10 team?  Hard to believe.  The Badgers get road games against Michigan State and Iowa.

6 - Texas leapfrogged Utah, mostly because of the computer rankings.  Texas plays Kansas and Texas A&M, which could lower their SOS component of the computer rankings.

7 - Utah is looking at an undefeated season.  Wyoming and BYU don't have the firepower, but will raise the Utes' SOS.

8 - Georgia will drop after losing to Auburn.

9 - Michigan probably won't have enough to leapfrog the Utes.

Okay, so the first five teams will likely remain intact.  There are a few "possible" upsets:

   USC v Notre Dame (may not drop USC out of the top 6), Cal @ USM, Wisconsin @ Iowa, Texas v Texas A&M.

I think it comes down to the difference between the SOS component of the computer rankings with Utah, Texas, and Michigan.  Of course, Boise State is ahead of Utah in the computer rankings, and a loss by BSU would also help Utah.

[79 Bull]

Also comes down to voters like James that would never vote a non-BCS team in the top 10.  I bet there are more than a few of them out there.

[BullDoug]

Best chances for Utah is Notre Dame @ USC, TX A&M@TX, GA@Auburn, Tennesse vs Auburn in the SEC championship, Cal@USM & WS@MIState.

[bulls96go]

playoff! now!

[GarySJ]

Here's another huge problem with the BCS, which by the way I've not heard anyone mention yet...

Let's say it's the last poll of the season. And you're the head coach of a 10-2 major-conference runnerup that's #8 in the polls. Your vote in the Coaches Poll helps determine whether or not Utah gets its automatic BCS invite... which incidentally would cost your team a major bowl game and probably $5 million in revenue.

Wouldn't you be tempted to stick Utah at, say, #12 in an attempt to weaken their overall BCS position?

And wouldn't all coaches in your conference, who stand to lose a healthy chunk of shared-conference revenue, be motivated to do the same?

The idea of a coaches' poll determining post-season bids is a MASSIVE conflict of interest. And there is no rule in the BCS that would account for it. There's nothing in the rules to prevent someone from voting Utah out of the Top 25 altogether. For that matter, there is nothing to prevent the coach of an unbeaten non-BCS team from voting his team #1 in an attempt to win his team the automatic invite.

This has been topic #3,746 in a series of 10,000 entitled "Why The BCS Sucks."

[smazza]

i don't feel sorry for utes or any other non bcs team

they made their deal with the devil

utah and others should have  broken away from bcs schools years ago  

but for 5 more dollars and a  promise they stayed