After blogging with a Mountaineer fan about my dream FCS playoff setup (See notes to last blog), I wondered how many FCS teams out of 119 don't have the "privilege" of playing in a conference that gets an automatic BCS bowl berth for its champion.  Would you believe 56? This means that almost half of the Division 1 teams in this country could have undefeated seasons and not make a BCS bowl game because a bunch of sportswriters, former coaches (of BCS eligible teams of course), and other supposed experts, along with a bunch of computers think that beating Boise State or Hawaii is not as important as beating Notre Dame.

This, to me, is unpardonable.  To tell half of the teams in the country, yeah even if you do win all your games, you can't win a national championship because, well we don't like your schedule, seems more like something you'd hear from a Soviet Bloc, state-sponsored sports machine than an association of American colleges.

But methinks the times may be changing. Ten, twenty years ago the traditional football powers (aka FOGHORNS), were able to dictate how things were run in the NCAA. But it seems there are a lot more barbarians at the gate these days.  Just look at the Big East.  Ten years ago Connecticut and South Florida were not division one teams.  It seems more schools are wanting to make the jump to Div 1.  Let's hope so.  Because if enough schools are getting screwed by the BCS setup, the more noise they make and maybe eventually the NCAA does something about it.  Isn't there something traditionally American about the Cinderella story?  Would say a Marshall or a Bowling Green making a title run in football be any less exciting than the Princetons, Indiana States, and Gonzagas of basketball?  So to all the teams in the WAC, Mountain West, MAC, Conference USA, Sun Belt I say MAKE SOME NOISE!!!  I can't believe some Congressman who wants to make a name for himself hasn't taken this on.  Or maybe we'll see that other great American pastime, the lawsuit.  How long until it takes a college or a conference to sue the NCAA over prohibiting a team to compete in the national championship just because of the conference they're in? Let's hope it's not long.  Championships decided on the field.  What a concept!