BCS format change in offing
FIFTH BOWL: EXTRA GAME IN '06 WOULD HAVE HELPED CAL IN '04:
By Jon Wilner
Mercury News
In the end, Cal's bid for the Rose Bowl was derailed by bad weather (Hurricane Ivan), a bad impression (the narrow win at Southern Mississippi) that led to a drop in the polls, and very bad timing.
If Sunday's scenario had played out two years from now -- with the Bears finishing fifth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings -- they'd be headed to Pasadena to play Michigan, not to the Holiday Bowl to face Texas Tech.
The caveats in the rules that blocked Cal's path to the Rose Bowl will not exist when the new BCS format takes effect for the 2006 season.
Of course, that's little consolation for a team that went 10-1 and dominated No. 1 USC, for fans who waited 46 years for a trip to the Rose Bowl or for the Pacific-10 Conference, which was hoping for an additional $3 million (approximately) to be divided equally among its members.
``We're thrilled that USC is the first team from our league to play in the championship game,'' Commissioner Tom Hansen said. ``But it's bittersweet because of what happened to Cal.''
After an unimpressive victory at Southern Mississippi last weekend -- the game was postponed from Sept. 16 because of Hurricane Ivan -- the Bears dropped to fifth in the final BCS rankings.
In that spot, they were victimized by rules that govern which teams receive the two at-large bids to the major bowls: Utah, which is not a BCS-conference member, got one bid for finishing sixth; Texas, which is a BCS member, got the other after vaulting Cal into fourth.
``If Utah had not been there, Cal would have been fine, and if Texas had stayed fifth, Cal would have been fine,'' Rose Bowl chief executive Mitch Dorger said.
Under contract
Dorger said he learned of Cal's snub Sunday morning, several hours before the BCS pairings show. He shared his frustration with Hansen.
``We talked about alternatives,'' Dorger said, ``but it's clearly in no one's best interest to pull out of the BCS.''
Contractually, it can't happen. The Rose Bowl signed an eight-year deal with ABC last summer worth an average of $30 million per game -- a more lucrative deal than the one the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls signed with Fox ($20 million per bowl per year).
The contract negotiations last summer prompted bowl officials to re-evaluate the BCS format, Dorger said, and they considered four options: going back to the pre-BCS system; using the current format with a few tweaks; changing to the ``BCS-plus'' system in which the BCS standings would be recalculated after the four major bowls, with the top two teams playing for the national title; and a playoff.
`Double-hosting'
In the end, officials chose to tweak the current system by adding a fifth game.
In what has been dubbed the ``double-hosting'' format, each BCS bowl will host a second game every fourth year. (When the new contract takes effect for the '06 season, the Fiesta Bowl will host its traditional game one week and a national title game the next.)
The extra game creates two more slots: six automatic bids to conference winners and four at-large berths, instead of the current two.
In addition, the automatic bids reserved for BCS teams in the top four (i.e. Texas) and non-BCS teams in the top six (i.e. Utah) will be eliminated.
``The BCS was initially intended to pick the top two teams,'' Hansen said. ``Then we added other responsibilities . . . and got ourselves in the position where the bowls have less freedom of choice and a team like Cal can be passed over by a team below it like Utah.'
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