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by Cat Grad » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:05 pm
Since you need to sign into the Atlanta Journal Constitution article, thought I'd better print it. Actually, having seven conferences in the BCS mix (if you buy into the thought process that the MW will be the seventh conference) makes it somewhat tolerable in that there will be eight teams if you choose one at-large for an actual, real playoff among the large schools.
ajc.com > Sports
BCS changes may keep Big East in fold
By MIKE KNOBLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/27/05
PHOENIX — Now that the ACC has taken Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East, will the Bowl Championship Series take away the Big East's automatic berth?
Possibly, but not until the 2008 season at the earliest.
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The BCS adopted new rules Wednesday that could change which leagues' champions are guaranteed berths in one of college football's five biggest bowl games. So far, those automatic berths have been reserved for the ACC, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-10 and the SEC.
Conferences will be measured in three ways over a four-year stretch from 2004-07:
• Average ranking in the BCS standings for the conference's highest-rated team.
• Average ranking in the BCS computer standings for every member of the conference.
• Number of Top 25 teams.
The measurements will be based on a conference's 2008 membership; the Big East gets credit for what Louisville did last fall, and the ACC gets credit for Boston College.
Five to seven top-performing conferences will get automatic qualification for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said. But there's a human element, too. A committee of eight university presidents will be empowered to grant automatic qualification based on other criteria, including the conference's market size, its tradition, its television ratings and its history of selling bowl tickets.
Those committee criteria appear to favor the Big East, with its large population base. But Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said his league — now led by Louisville, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Syracuse — should be able to perform well enough on the field that it doesn't need help from the committee.
"I think they're fair [numerical measurements] and they're attainable," Tranghese said. "I don't have a crystal ball, but neither do the other conferences."
The committee criteria reflect a fact about the BCS and bowls in general: They're not only about on-the-field performance. They're also about fan bases, ticket sales and TV ratings, all of which have been strengths of the original BCS members.
"It gets back to the reason those conferences are the ones that started the BCS," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "That's who the bowls wanted. That's who television wanted."
The conference commissioner with the biggest smile on Wednesday was the Mountain West's Craig Thompson. His nine-team league — think Utah, BYU and starting this fall TCU — covets an automatic berth.
"I think this is a very progressive step," Thompson said of the new automatic qualification standards. "Now it's up to us to produce."
Also Wednesday, the BCS changed the way it handles Notre Dame, a football independent.
Beginning with the 2006 season, Notre Dame gets an automatic BCS berth if it finishes in the top eight in the BCS standings and is eligible for consideration if it finishes in the top 12.
Notre Dame also gets a yearly payoff from the BCS even if it doesn't play in a BCS game. That payoff will be similar to what a member of a BCS conference would receive, a bit over $1 million a year. If Notre Dame appears in a BCS game, it will receive what an at-large team from a BCS conference would earn, about $4.5 million. In the past, Notre Dame got $14 million when it appeared in a BCS game and nothing when it didn't.
Also, starting in 2006, there's a new qualification provision for leagues that don't have automatic berths. A champion from one of those leagues is guaranteed a BCS spot is it finishes in the top 12 of the BCS standings or if it finishes in the top 16 and above the lowest-ranked champion in a league with an automatic berth.
I fail to understand why the 1-AA schools voted against the twelfth game and now understand why some 1-AA conferences said they will go D1 as a conference now 
This will cause the largest realignment since the major conferences sued to break the television contracts in the 80s 