The Pecan Park Eagle

Once you pass the BCS games-won and rankings tests, all you have to do is show us where your invitation is located. - Is it hidden in Bowl # 1? Bowl # 2? Or Bowl # 3?

“Who ya gonna call? – BCS-BUSTERS!”

Wish it were that easy, but it’s not. How you crash the party, if you are not a school that belongs to a BCS automatic qualifier conference, is complicated. For all others, bustin’ the BCS takes perfection, connection, and luck to make it all the way into the prestigious big-paying bowl games invitation list.

The loss of Boise State (8-1) to TCU (8-2) on Saturday dropped the boys from the smurf-turf to # 11 in the current BCS Poll while it elevated the Horned Frogs to the # 16 spot. In the meanwhile, the Houston Cougars (10-0) held serve at the # 11 position by thrashing the Tulane Green Wave last Thursday night. – Now, you might think the UH record would have lifted them above the one-loss Boise Boys, but that’s not the way this BCS game works. “Weakness of Schedule” by UH is cited by most as the reason their undefeated season has not garnered them more respect. In spite of being one of only three Division 1 NCAA football teams with undefeated records to this point in the season, the Cougars have eight one-loss clubs ranked above them (“strength of schedule” argument again, we presume). The other two undefeated clubs, # 1 LSU and # 2 Oklahoma State, both 10-0, are holding fast to the idea of meeting down the road in the BCS for the national championship.

For UH to bust into the BCS bowl picture, all they can do is take care of business and hope for the best. UH needs to win out with a home game victory over SMU this coming Saturday and a road trip conquest of Tulsa on Nov. 25th. Neither are easy games. And Tulsa has been the spoiler of many UH seasons in the past. At any rate, if the Cougars win those two, they get to play in the C-USA title game on Dec. 3rd, probably against the currently # 20 ranked Southern Miss Eagles (9-1).

Win out against those three games and UH little doubt finishes in the Top 12 with an undefeated record and eligible for a BCS bowl, even if Boise State continues to rank above them. For Boise to out-bust UH from this point, they would have to win out and hope that TCU forfeits the WAC title by losing the rest of their conference games. Without a conference title, Boise could not be considered above Houston, even if they finish above them in the BCS rankings.

Don’t ask me to explain the logic of this plan. All I can do is report it as they write it and I try to understand it.

The ou-of-left-field monkey wrench for UH is TCU. UH needs TCU to win out to keep Boise State from resurrecting their conference title hopes in the WAC. If the Horn Frogs win the WAC and finish in the Top 16, however, BCS officials could then choose TCU over UH for a BCS spot, even if the Cougars win their title, finish undefeated, and are ranked higher in the BCS final poll. Under those circumstances, TCU’s eligibility would be anchored to the fact that their BCS ranking at year’s end was higher than a champion from a BCS-qualifier conference. WIth current Big East leading Cincinnati falling out of the BCS rankings this week, that condition is now pretty much assured, if TCU wins out and gets ranked at # 16 or above when all is said and done.

Of course, the BCS folks could take both UH and TCU, if they each qualify, but that outcome is seen as pretty much improbable.

If these outcomes are too hard to think about, don’t worry about it. Just wait with the rest of us to see what happens next. Everything should be played into clarity by the end of the first week in December.