UCLA upsets USC

[Byrd]

A round-robin attempt in an 11-team conference for a conference champion is another problem all its own, but 3-team rule or not, Wisconsin doesn't really deserve a BCS spot.

I would take Wisconsin over Notre Dame for a BCS spot, personally.

EDIT: And I'm pretty sure I'd take Auburn over either one, but I'd have to think on that.

[Roranora]

I'd take a 3rd SEC team. '-'

[Roranora]

Edit: You added Auburn as I replied.. we all know Notre Dame is a joke.

[Byrd]

Edit: You added Auburn as I replied.. we all know Notre Dame is a joke.

The thing I don't like about Auburn is they lost two games by large margins at home, one to Georgia. But they did beat Florida.

[archibaldcrane]

Even if one of the two were out of the picture, 11 junk wins probably wouldn't get them anywhere, and I already said earlier another team and a conference champion would help a lot. Say OSU was a .500 team this year, and USC was undefeated, the clear decision for one of the spots in the BCS title game, but a non-Big 10 team, and you still had Florida/Michigan.. or any team+Michigan fighting for the No.2 spot, a resume like Wisconsin's this year wouldn't get them a BCS bid (as again they still wouldn't be the Big 10 Champion for an auto-bid). Ignoring 3 team rule, Wisconsin doesn't really have anything to complain about this year.. they didn't play much and didn't have the chance to showcase much, outside of the Michigan game, where they failed to.

A round-robin attempt in an 11-team conference for a conference champion is another problem all its own, but 3-team rule or not, Wisconsin doesn't really deserve a BCS spot.

If you don't get an automatic bid, there is no "deserves". The only thing that bowls care about is how much money you'll make them. Saying, as you are, that Notre Dame deserves a BCS bid over Wisconsin (if the 3-team rule was eliminated, or if Ohio State wasn't good) is absurd. People give credit for teams beating Penn State or Iowa because they played them early in the season when they were ranked. Wisconsin beat both those teams also. It's a popularity contest driven by money, which is the reason the BCS exists in the first place. I don't know whether LSU or Wisconsin drives more money into a bowl (our Rose Bowl fan-base has been pretty huge over the past 8 years) but that would be the lone deciding factor for the at-large-contemplating bowls.

[Roranora]

I don't think Notre Dame should, but they definately would, in the hypothetical. It's the power of the dollar, but really to an unbiased eye, which is clearly not you, Wisconsin didn't do much this year for their record. Before both Notre Dame and Wisconsin, I'd want to see at least 4 strong SEC teams (Florida/LSU/Auburn/Arkansas) play in big games, but it just doesn't work that way, and rarely, very rarely do the Big 12/Big 10 look so bland in comparison to the SEC.