Granted, the system doesn’t always follow tradition with tie-ins, and sometimes the non-BCS at-large bids don’t live up to their bidding (looking at you, Hawaii).
But, in the current system, teams sometimes get in when they shouldn’t, solely because they have a conference tie-in. The Big Ten-Pac 10 Rose Bowl match-up is a classic, but come on!
Case in point: The 2004 Fiesta Bowl pitted undefeated Utah against Big East champion Pittsburgh, which was 8-4. A record like that is good for a pre-New Year's Day bowl, not a BCS game. How about giving that spot to Louisville or Boise State, which both had 11-1 records, and played each other in the Liberty Bowl?
6. Soft non-conference college football schedules
Before the conference games begin, a lot of teams get a chance to essentially pad their records by winning three or four games against cupcake teams. It’s good publicity for the underdog, but honestly, is it any fun if the underdog gets blown out by 45 points?
It can work the other way if the underdog wins (like Appalachian State over Michigan), but it’s a way for most good teams to be two wins away from bowl eligibility without playing any real competition until the conference season.
Texas, for example, opens the next season with Florida Atlantic. Ohio State opens with Youngstown State.
It seems like a good reward in preparation for a tough conference schedule, but teams like LSU, Ohio State, and Oklahoma shouldn’t be given much leeway if they’re considered some of the best in the nation. Make all the teams play tougher and more interesting match-ups.
If anything, it keeps the good teams honest and gives the smaller schools a chance to prove their worth against the big boys.
7. Cinderella teams upping the standard for other teams
Every year in the NCAA Tournament, there’s at least one mid-major team that has a good tournament run, leading analysts to advocate for more automatic bids for those teams and more accountability from coaches and players for mid-major teams, because “if they can do it, any team can do it.”
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