BCS Guru: Talking Big 12 Tiebreakers

The Bowl Championship Series is getting ugly.

The formula used to select teams that play in the national title game could be used to decide the champion of the Big 12 South Division. This was made possible by Texas Tech's victory over Texas.

If Texas Tech, Texas and Oklahoma each finish with only one loss, a complicated tiebreaker would be used to decide the South champion. Here's the scenario: Oklahoma would have to beat Texas Tech on Nov. 22 in Norman. Because Texas beat Oklahoma, Texas Tech beat Texas and Oklahoma beat Texas Tech, the tiebreaking procedure will fall to No. 5, which reads: "The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative."

That brings us to Sam Chi, the BCS Guru. Sam projects Sunday's standings will look like this:

1. Alabama, 2. Penn State, 3. Texas Tech, 4. Florida, 5. Texas, 6. Oklahoma, 7. USC, 8. Oklahoma State, 9. Utah, 10. Boise State, 11. Texas Christian, 12. Ohio State, 13. Georgia, 14. Missouri, 15. Ball State.

Although the Longhorns tumbled to No. 5, they remain in a favorable spot, just ahead of Oklahoma. A Sooner victory over the Red Raiders would likely push the Longhorns ahead of Texas Tech in the BCS standings, earning Texas a berth to the Big 12 title game.

We discussed the tiebreaker system with Sam in our latest podcast and also talked about USC's fading BCS chances and the possibility of an Oregon State/California-Michigan State matchup in the Rose Bowl.

You'll notice no Atlantic Coast Conference or Big East teams in the top 15 and four non-BCS teams: Utah, Boise State, Texas Christian and Ball State. Under BCS guidelines, only one of the four teams can earn a bid to a BCS game and Sam projects that Boise State has the best shot, with the Broncos a likely candidate for the Fiesta Bowl.

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Comments

[Lawrence]

But a Sooner win over Tech would give OU a quality win that would catapult them over UT, just like UT jumped from #7 to #1 by beating OU and Tech jumped from #7 to #2 by beating Texas.

The BCS three-way tiebreaker actually favors OU.

[HAROLD LEVINE]

If Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech end with the same record, how does the Big Twelve South decide which one will go to the Big Twelve Championship game?

Thanks,

Harold Levine