By GIL LeBRETON
glebreton@star-telegram.com
The guys in bowl blazers are eyeing the TCU Horned Frogs again.
They want to see the team that the coaches have ranked No. 4 in the land. They want to see for themselves one of college football’s seven remaining unbeatens.
Twelve years ago, TCU was slogging its way to a 1-10 season. Its football future was about to reach a crossroads.
Now the bowl people are flying to see TCU play, wondering if the Frogs will be fitting guests for the holidays.
Feel free to be giddy, TCU fans. But remember that this is the BCS you’re dealing with.
To a mushrooming number of college football followers, the BCS is a four-letter word. Let me suggest, however, that the anger is misplaced.
As a vehicle to assist in matching the No. 1 and No. 2 college football teams in the nation, the BCS is doing a far better job than what came before it.
As the Bowl Championship Series administrators themselves point out, in the 57 seasons between 1936 and 1992, the top two ranked teams met in postseason bowl games only eight times.
In the 11 years of the BCS, the two top teams have met eight times.
You can argue the math, and you can curse the computers. But the system is far more credible than the New Year’s Day mornings when five different teams would claim to be playing that day for No. 1.
A better case can be made against the BCS for how it fills the other four big-money bowl games that it controls. And that’s where TCU students, alums and followers can rightly begin holding their breaths.
The loudest whisper of the week? That the Fiesta Bowl would like to match TCU and Boise State, should both finish their regular seasons unbeaten.
The whisperers made some valid points. Texas, as expected champion of the Big 12 Conference, appears headed for the national championship game. And no other Big 12 team may rank high enough in the final BCS standings to serve as the Fiesta’s host team.
Pairing the two Cinderellas from non-automatic qualifying conferences would be a noble and ethical choice, the whisperers have argued.
In addition, I was told, the bowl people worry that Southern Cal, accustomed to the sweet scent of the Rose Bowl, would bring little interest — and few fans — to a game in Arizona.
But since when do nobility and ethics have anything to do with the BCS bowl games?
I don’t see a TCU-Boise matchup happening — not as long as ticket sales and TV ratings have anything to do with who gets selected.
The Sugar Bowl’s ticket allotment for each team is 17,000. That’s a lot of tickets, especially for a school where the number would represent roughly half of its normal Saturday crowd.
Hawaii, somewhat surprisingly, had no trouble selling its Sugar Bowl allotment for the 2008 game. Scores of Rainbows fans apparently were eager to fly in from the West Coast.
But also surprisingly, Utah reportedly struggled to sell its Sugar tickets last season, and Alabama fans eagerly snatched them up.
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