2011 Bowl Games: TCU Belongs in Fiesta Bowl Ahead of Big East Champion

With the BCS rankings set to be released on Sunday night, chaos reigns supreme. The only thing that we know for sure is LSU will play for a national championship. Beyond that, your guess is as good as the next person’s. But of all the winners on Saturday, the biggest has to be the TCU Horned Frogs.

Despite winning the Mountain West Conference with a 10-2 record and a victory over No. 7 Boise State, TCU was expected to miss out on a BCS bowl because of the Broncos and the previously undefeated Houston Cougars.

But a dominant victory against UNLV, a Houston loss to Southern Mississippi and a mediocre crop of teams from the Big East has opened the door wide open and a banner is hanging on the wall that reads “Welcome, TCU.”

There is still some work that has to be done, but TCU did everything that it could. In the end, as Jeff Caplan of ESPN.com wrote, the voters and computers have to show them some love. As we know that is not an easy feat for a mid-major conference team.

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Don't get confused by the rankings. Boise State entered the weekend ranked No. 7 in the BCS standings, and Houston was No. 6 and in control of its BCS destiny. But, the automatic berth for a non-AQ team goes to the conference champion. If a non-AQ conference champion finishes ranked in the top 16 and ahead of the champion from an AQ conference (in this case the Big East's West Virginia is No. 23), the non-AQ champ earns the automatic berth. 

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There is no reason for the voters to screw over TCU in this scenario. This team has overcome early season adversity to play like we all expected them to: they won their conference, which includes a Top 10 Boise State team and they are playing as well as anyone in the country outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Big East is a joke right now and the fact that the conference still gets an automatic BCS berth is a travesty in and of itself. 

TCU has done more than any Big East team this season and has earned the right to play in one of the five biggest bowl games. 

I believe that Oklahoma State will move to the No. 2 spot in the BCS rankings, leaving a vacancy in the Fiesta Bowl. The selection committee for this game almost always takes the non-automatic qualifiers and they are very familiar with TCU. 

The Horned Frogs have played in the Fiesta Bowl in 2010, losing to Boise State, 17-10. 

Even if the voters and computers get everything else wrong today, which is entirely possible considering what we have seen in the past, TCU has done its part and secured a spot in a BCS game.

The time has come for this evil entity to get over all of its little hang ups about these schools and show them the respect that they deserve. TCU is better than any Big East team and deserves to be recognized as such with a trip to the Fiesta Bowl.