In an earlier post in this stream I discussed the Stanford Cardinal football team’s chances of making it into a BCS Bowl, most notably the Rose Bowl. I was a bit confused by some of the qualifying rules, but our friends at the Rule of Tree cleared this up a bit:
[If] Auburn and Oregon win out and meet in the National Championship Game [, t]he Rose Bowl would be required to select an eligible team from a non-automatic qualifying conference—Boise State or TCU, assuming both teams win out. Stanford’s resume would certainly put it in contention for an at-large berth in one of the other BCS bowls, but the Cardinal could be passed over out of fear that its fans would not fill seats.
If the top teams win out this season, then it looks like Stanford might be in a very poor position to end up in a BCS bowl. Due to the Big Ten’s contractual agreement with the Rose Bowl, Stanford could be out of the Rose Bowl. As RoT accurately points out, attendance issues could cause Stanford a shot at any another BCS bowl. At the end of the day this whole process is about making money (no matter what the NCAA tells you) and if a team struggles to fill seats, it won’t look good for the bowl selection committees.