Big Ten Bowl Selection: Michigan State Deserves the Big Ten's at-Large Bid

So listen to this one. This college football team beats one of its rivals at home and ends up in the conference championship game.  Dream season, right?  Wrong.  That team then loses in the championship game, and the rival ends up getting the at-large BCS bid.  A real screw job, right?

"Exactly," says every Missouri football fan out there.  They should know.  The same thing happened to them in 2007.

When the Big Ten went after a 12th team—and the addition of a conference championship game—it did so with plenty of positive consequences in mind; adding a storied football program, expanding the conference footprint, strengthening the Big Ten Network.  However, one negative consequence was always known: a championship game is one more chance at a loss at a time when the BCS doesn't look kindly on losses.

If a Big Ten team wants to go undefeated for a chance at the BCS title, it has to do it in one more conference game against the other division winner.  Best case scenario: the other team is an underachiever that backed into the game and should be an easy win—but one that doesn't provide any spark (e.g. Oregon vs. UCLA).  Worst case scenario: the team is a powerhouse that you have already beaten by the slimmest of margins.

Not only does this hurt the Big Ten's pursuit of a BCS championship, it potentially stands in the path of a second at-large BCS bid.  While the winner of the conference championship game strengthens its resume, the loser adds one loss in the last week of the season—an almost assured drop in the human polls.  A team with more than one loss coming into the conference championship risks a fall that could drop it dangerously close to the dreaded 14-team at-large cutoff.

In light of all of that, Michigan getting the Big Ten's at-large bid is a positive, right?  It adds a great deal of bowl revenue to the conference coffers and is another opportunity to change the national perception of the Big Ten on national TV.

While that is all well and good and the conference as a whole benefits, one thing has to be acknowledged:  Michigan State got screwed.

Michigan State's case for the at-large bid is simple:

—The Spartans beat Michigan head to head in East Lansing.

—The Spartans had the best regular season conference record of any team in the Big Ten.

—The Spartans' best wins (Wisconsin, Michigan) trump Michigan's best wins (Nebraska, Notre Dame).

First, it would be shortsighted not to point out that Michigan has had a wonderful season.  Ten wins, exciting victories over Notre Dame and Ohio State and an almost complete defensive revival are great, but there are two things missing from that list.  Michigan didn't play in the conference title game, and it didn't beat Michigan State.

Watching the seconds tick away during the game on Saturday night, you couldn't help but feel sorry for the Michigan State players who are going to lose the opportunity to play in a BCS bowl because of a foolish penalty.

The system, however, is not built with fairness in mind.  That is why Wikipedia has an entire entry devoted to chronicling the various BCS controversies that have popped up since the post-season system's inception in 1998.

This year isn't even going to be held to just one addition to Wikipedia.  On top of Michigan State losing the conference title game and its shot at an at-large bid, you can add in the fact that Alabama is going to go to the national championship for a rematch with LSU despite the fact that Bama didn't play for its conference championship and there is another one-loss team with an arguably better resume that got snubbed.  

Oh, and don't forget the yearly "Boise State got jobbed out of ________ because of _______" (2011 answers: BCS at-Large bid; Money).

Michigan State deserves to be the Big Ten team that is Sugar Bowl-bound this January.  Instead, the Spartans will have to settle for an Outback Bowl birth behind 9-3 Nebraska.

Unfortunately, Michigan State is finding out what so many other teams have in the little over a decade of BCS hegemony: deserving has got nothin' to do with it.