BCS Bowl Games 2012: Why TCU Must Be in a BCS Bowl

A few short hours from now, the BCS rankings for Week 15 are going to be revealed, and with them will come matchups for the five BCS bowl games.

There's a lot of focus right now on the possibility that Oklahoma State will leapfrog Alabama to earn the No. 2 spot, thus earning a spot in the BCS National Championship Game against LSU.

However, another matter that has to be resolved concerns the fate of the TCU Horned Frogs. They've flown under the radar this year, but they have a shot to earn a BCS berth as the highest-ranked non-AQ conference champion.

The catch? TCU must be in the top 16 to secure a BCS bid, and it entered the weekend at No. 18. To play in a BCS bowl, the Horned Frogs have to move up two spots.

That's going to be easier said than done. The Horned Frogs destroyed UNLV 56-9 to wrap up their regular season, but that's not going to sway the computers, who are not big fans of the Mountain West. The question will be how the voters view TCU.

So far, so good in that regard. The USA Today Coaches' Poll for Week 15 has been released, and it has TCU at No. 15. The USA Today poll had TCU at No. 17 last week.

If the Harris Poll follows suit, the Horned Frogs will likely move into the top 16, and then into a BCS bowl. 

No matter how the numbers shake out, the question that the fans are asking and the voters must answer is whether or not TCU really deserves to play in a BCS bowl. After all, this is not the same team that went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl last year.

Maybe so, but I'm of the mind that the Horned Frogs most definitely belong in a BCS bowl. Allow me to explain why.

Because TCU started the season relatively slowly with losses in two of its first five games, a lot of people left the Horned Frogs for dead. But they snapped out of it after their loss to SMU on Oct. 1, and proceeded to win seven games in a row to finish the season.

All seven of these wins were impressive in their own way. The Horned Frogs dominated a handful of them, and they scored a couple of key victories on the road. 

The key win of the bunch was a victory at then-No. 5 Boise State on Nov. 12. The win knocked Boise State out of the national title picture, and it gave the Horned Frogs control of the Mountain West. They didn't give it up after they got it.

As far as non-AQ conferences go, the Mountain West is halfway decent, and winning it is no small accomplishment. Especially not when a team like TCU has to edge the current No. 6 team in the country to get it done.

If TCU gets screwed out of a BCS berth, it will be yet another example in a growing list of examples that conference titles really don't mean anything in the grand scheme of the BCS.

Case in point, Alabama is all but assured to play for the national title despite not winning the SEC or even playing in the SEC Championship Game. If TCU doesn't get the nod, it's possible that Boise State will play in a BCS bowl despite not winning the Mountain West.

This will all be academic as far as TCU is concerned, as the Horned Frogs are headed for the Big 12. But for now, TCU is faced with the very real possibility of missing out on a BCS bowl because of what is essentially a loophole.

We shall see. If the Horned Frogs are left out in the cold, the BCS will have failed again. And unfortunately, not for the last time either.