Orange Bowl Blowout: Why Automatic Qualifiers Are Ridiculous

West Virginia destroyed Clemson in the Discover Orange Bowl in a way that no BCS bowl game should play out, with a final score of 70-33 on Wednesday.

Clemson, while certainly not a bad team, is an automatic qualifier from the Atlantic Coast Conference and had no business playing in a BCS game. 

Automatic qualifiers are a terrible idea because on any given year in college football, an entire conference can have a down year. 

The ACC was a horrible conference this year, and despite West Virginia’s manhandling of an inferior opponent, so was the Big East.

Neither team deserved to be in a BCS game, but both got a shot.

As much as I’ve beat up on Boise State for being overrated, the Broncos deserved this bowl game way more than either West Virginia or Clemson.

Games like this make the BCS look like an even bigger joke than it is.

You have teams scoring, or I should say allowing, 89 points before the end of the third quarter while teams like Boise State, Arkansas and Kansas State are left out of the BCS.

It is an absurd system that makes no sense, but because it makes dollars, stays in place.

Only the BCS could have the Nos. 15 and 23 teams playing in a major bowl while Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are all left out.

What would be so wrong about taking the top 10 teams and putting them in the BCS bowl games?

The top two teams could play for the national championship, and the next eight could be matched up to create the most enjoyable games.

The problem with that scenario is that the Big East and ACC would get left out more times than not, and then they’d cry about not getting a chance to play.

It’s time to put the money, politics and ridiculous automatic qualifiers aside and let the teams that deserve to play in major bowl games have their chance.

No one outside of West Virginia wants to see the nonsense that was put forth in the Orange Bowl.