If the BCS 6 doesn't offer access to the mid-majors, should they go off and form their own BCS????

I've seen some mid-major matchups and they can be VERY entertaining. Why keep begging at the BCS table, start something similar and increase the value of the mid-major bowls.

Five Conferences.
Mountain West, Conference USA, Mid America, Sun Belt, Western Athletic.

Like the BCS, the top ranked matchup would move amongst the bowl games.

Liberty Bowl
Conf USA #1 vs Mountain West #1

GMAC Bowl
Mid America #1 vs AT-LARGE

New Orleans Bowl
Sun Belt #1 vs WAC #1

Notice I put the Mid-Major only bowls here. Other bowls with BCS conference affiliations would be difficult to coerce into this arrangement.

What if a mid-major makes the BCS??? Easy, the team would go to the BCS ... BUT it would compensate the bowl with part of it's BCS monies. A team that goes BCS would pay the bowl that they are leaving half of what they would have gotten there.


Any other ideas for bowls in such an arrangement.

One "coerceable" bowl might be the Fort Worth Bowl. In the game's first year of existance the Big 12 failed to provide a team. That left the Fort Worth Bowl with the current mid-major matchup. But getting a nationally ranked Boise St. team is a lot more impressive (to me) than a 6-6 Big12 team.

I would think that the bowls you mentioned would love your idea. They definitely need the increased attention.

I like your loophole that would allow a mid-major to attend the big BCS, but I don't think they should be penalized part of the payout. Just having a mid-major in the big BCS would increase exposure for the little BCS.

This is an intriguing idea that has been hinted at before in the context of the non-BCS schools just going ahead and arranging a complete playoff for a national championship. They start a party with a sixteen-team playoff, culminating in a national "non-BCS" championship game the Sunday after the BCS chanpionship game.

The idea is sort of like the old NFL-AFL rivalry. Eventually the media pressure forced the NFL do a game between its champion and the AFL champion, and after a few AFL victories, the leagues were finally forced to merge.

Ditto BCS and non-BCS. Then the BCS schools would be shamed into also adopting a "playoff" format to parallel the non-BCS schools.

It would require hutzpah and media cooperation, but would be great fun if it ever happened...

8-)

...that the BCS and non-BCS actually do meet on the field and engage in a symbiotic relationship wherein large portions of the athletic budgets of some non-BCS schools are funded by so-called "body bag" games. The AFL-NFL comparison is a poor one or several reasons, including that the AFL alway had an exclusive national television contract, first with ABC, and later, with NBC. The AFL was also able to attract bona fide "name" players that America was generally familiar with (e.g. Billy Canon, Joe Namath). Also, the NFL was not defeating the AFL on a regular basis in on-field competition, because their teams did not play each other as part of the regular season. Furthermore, the BCS has no Pete Rozelle, nor the non-BCS and Al Davis; there is no dynamic personality to serve as a great unifier. I realize that is asking a lot, but let's face it: there is no "think league" mentaliy in either of these "competing" camps, with possible exception of Big Ten & Pac-10, but even the BCS has eroded that yolk.

As for notions of a mid-major BCS, look to the present (Liberty Bowl) or the past (California (Raisin)/Las Vegas Bowl; Pasadena Bowl; pre-modern CapitalOne, Independence, and Sun Bowls--all bowls with "equal footing" tie-ins that fostered rivalries between the lower-tier conferences/independents.

Unfortunately, Div 1-A rules don't allow for competition beyond the single bowl game. They would have to withdraw from the NCAA because the BCS schools will not allow a playoff.

A possibility is the "plus one" game. If the BCS does institute a 1/4 vs 2/3 mini-playoff, they will need an exception rule for that additional game. As part of a deal, the non-BCS schools could insist on hosting their own mini-playoff for their own schools.

Effectively, you would have a mini div 1A championship AND a div 1(A-) championship.

I definitely think that the non-BCS schools need to increase their visibility with their own best assets. This means putting together great matchups with the best schools they've got. The "at-large" spot could be used to invite another non-BCS, a sub-par BCS school (for target practice, or an independent.

Right now, 5 mid-major conferences are beating each other up over who will be the seventh BCS conference. Perhaps they just need to work together and increase their collective fortunes.

The Boise St vs TCU game tonight was excellent. So was the Louisville vs Miami-OH game. Mid-Majors need to keep providing these excellent matchups. If they can gaurantee them, they could probably get more TV money and hence, bigger bowl payouts.

...did not force a merger, the merger was an integral part of the original 1966 AFL-NFL agreement, and the fact that the AFL pulled off major upsets in the last two pre-merger Super Bowls is circumstancial. The first phases of the merger agreement were the first four Super Bowls, an AFL-NFL common draft, and pre-season exhibition games between the leagues, in an arrangement akin to the traditional approach of the AL and NL before interleague play and "MLB" umpires..