Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com may have resuscitated Boise State’s BCS Bowl hopes today. When he updated his 2012 Bowl predictions. Palm stated the following:
The ACC champion is locked to the Orange Bowl and it will be Florida State. The Orange Bowl gets the final pick and will select a one-loss Boise State.
After suffering a backbreaking loss to LeVeon Bell err I mean Michigan State this past Friday, all the talk afterwards was that with Boise State’s loss there would be not be a “BCS Buster”. One would think that after 6 years of either being in a BCS Bowl game or being in the hunt for a BCS game, Boise State would be called a BCS Contender, but I digress.
After reading Palm’s statement it made me think. How could Palm be predicting Boise State to appear in a BCS game? I looked first to the BCS Selection Procedures, Under Number 3 of the Automatic Qualification rules reads the following:
The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:
- Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or,
- Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.
No more than one such team from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, and the Western Athletic Conference shall earn an automatic berth in any year. (Note: a second team may be eligible for at-large eligibility as noted below.) If two or more teams from those conferences satisfy the provisions for an automatic berth, then the team with the highest finish in the final BCS Standings will receive the automatic berth, and the remaining team or teams will be considered for at-large selection if it meets the criteria.
It should be noted that the Broncos still have the rest of the season to make the above a reality. Of course a few things have to fall their way.
- First and foremost BSU needs to be the Mountain West Conference Champion, something BSU failed to secure in 2011.
- It goes without saying that despite the blemish on their record the Broncos would need to be perfect the rest of the season.
- It would be helpful for Michigan State to win out and very helpful if they win the Big Ten Championship.
- Currently ranked 25th in the USA Today Poll, the Broncos would need to climb at least 9 spots and hope for a BCS conference winner to be ranked behind them or just rise 13 spots and finished Ranked 12th in the Final BCS Poll.
The Broncos have in the past finished in the top 16 and have been WAC Champions. During those years the Broncos were only awarded one automatic birth to a BCS game, the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. In the 2009 season the Broncos finished behind MWC Champ Utah in the BCS and settled for the Poinsettia Bowl. In 2010 the WAC Champions finished behind the TCU Horned Frogs, the MWC Champs, but ultimately secured an at large bid and ended up beating those same TCU Horned Frogs. In 2010 the Broncos shared a part of the WAC Championship, but fell short to the Nevada Wolfpack and finished behind TCU in the BCS Standings and played in the Las Vegas Bowl. Last year the Broncos fell to TCU in MWC play and finished second to TCU and well were snubbed from an at large bid.
Though the BCS hopes did not die in East Lansing, the Broncos face an uphill battle. Not only do the Broncos need the aforementioned to fall into place, there is also that chance that another non AQ Conference could have a team run the table and finish ahead of the Broncos. The bottom line is that all is not lost on a BCS Bowl birth, but the Broncos will have to get back on their feet and fight, fight, fight.
