It's bubble discussion time and if any schmo that can run his motorcycle into a tree can offer his opinions on bubble teams, we figure why can't us (it worked for Phillies fans, after all). Cleet and I take a look at all of the potential bubble teams, what work they have left to do and who's definitely in or out. Due to the length we've broken the podcast up by conferences. First up, the ACC...
For those of you that would rather listen to the podcast in it's entirety, you can listen or download it HERE.
ACC
In: UNC, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, Florida State, and Boston College.
Bubble: Miami, Maryland, and Virginia Tech.
Big Ten
In: Michigan State, Illinois, and Purdue.
Bubble: Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan, and Northwestern.
Big XII
In: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Texas (with yesterday's win).
Bubble: Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
Big East
In: UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Villanova, Marquette, and Syracuse.
Bubble: West Virginia (split decision) and Providence.
Pac-10
In: Washington, UCLA, Arizona State and Cal.
Bubble: Arizona.
SEC
In: LSU (begrudgingly) and Tennessee.
Bubble: South Carolina, Florida, and Kentucky.
WCC
In: Gonzaga.
Bubble: St. Mary's.
Atlantic 10
In: Xavier and Dayton.
Bubble: Rhode Island.
Mountain West
In: BYU and Utah.
Bubble: San Diego State and UNLV.
The Rest of the Story
In: Memphis.
Bubble: UAB and Creighton.
Out: Davidson.
Thursday, March 12
Shackleford Files 011: Bubbling Over (Updated)
Friday, March 6
Mountain West Conference Wants to Play
A college football post just days before Carolina v. Duke? When it involves a playoff system, our focus can be shifted. The Mountain West conference is taking the banner of smaller conferences themselves to the BCS ivory tower. They propose that conferences that have a better than .400 winning percentage against the BCS conferences over a two-year proposal, a new system that would grant only themselves an additional automatic bid. They also suggest a tremendous shift in the selection of the teams, moving away from polls and the computers to a 12-man selection committee.
As a digression, how far are we from no longer feeling obligated to give Notre Dame special treatment? They're treated as holier than thou by the BCS and this proposal, which guarantees them a seat at the selection committee table. We've reached the point that no one outside of South Bend expects them to do much, and they can either fall in line or fall further behind. At this point, they're just another program and the top bowls are no better or worse without them.
What about that playoff? The Mountain West offers an 8-team playoff, with the 9th and 10th place teams playing in a BCS bowl, but not part of the playoff. This attempts to keep the "power" conferences appeased, but avoiding a 20th ranked team in the playoff (Cincinnati, they're referring to you). Assuming the seven (if the MWC is added) automatic bids, it would only allow for at most three at-large bids, which is a fair compromise, but that 5th BCS game would be such a scarlet letter for the conferences involved, that no one would go for this idea. The need to include more than eight again points to our suggestion of the sixteen team playoff. Full Proposal
