BCS Meetings: Raising Bowl Participant Limits Is Terrible for Small Schools

There were several interesting elements to Stewart Mandel's recent report from the BCS meetings, and as far as small schools go, no portion was more telling than this: 

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BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said definitively last week that automatic qualification status for conferences "will not continue," but that doesn't mean the bowls can't individually continue their traditional relationships with certain conferences. However, in order to ensure all six games contain compelling matchups, teams would have to meet a minimum ranking (perhaps Top 15), and the teams-per-conference limit would be raised from two to three, said one source. While this stands to primarily benefit the major conferences, the limited pool would make it hard for one of the bowls to pass up, say, seventh-ranked Boise State.

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I'm fully in support of the removal of the automatic qualifications and raising the limit to three teams, instead of two. What I don't understand is how this helps out the non-BCS schools.

The removal of the automatic qualifier means that the requirement for bowls to take the non-BCS team is also gone. Not only do the ACC and Big East lose the grandfathering in of their champions who have been ranked outside of the Top 15 in recent years, but the MWC and WAC lose their clause as well.

If you're not familiar with the rule, here is the qualification that is being stripped away along with the other automatic qualifiers:

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3. 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:

  A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or, 

  B. 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.

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That's a lot to digest, but basically, in the history of the BCS, there has only been one non-BCS team admitted to the major bowls without the help of this clause. Utah in 2004, Boise State in 2006, Hawaii in 2007, Utah in 2008 and TCU in 2010 all satisfied this qualification to get their shot at a BCS Bowl. Only the 2009 Fiesta Bowl featured a team, Boise State, that actually received an at-large bid to play.

The point here is that by removing the automatic qualifiers, the system is making it easier for bowls to skip over the small schools. Now, the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose Bowl have the opportunity to pick freely from the Top 15. Why pick Boise State (ranked in the Top 15 in 2011) when you have access to Arkansas, South Carolina, Michigan and Oklahoma?

There truly is no incentive to select a smaller school, and now, the BCS is also removing the forced measure to ensure non-BCS schools that are highly ranked get their shot. Not exactly a great move for the little guy.