Coogs to the BcS?

[WMH]

With Boise St. going down (again) today, it seems like the Coogs MAY get a shot at the Rose bowl.

Wouldn't that be something?

Not sure how they will fare against the "big" boys, but with that offensive firepower, should definitely be an entertaining game.

[HPF Bob]

The Cougars have had the most sticky-sweet of cupcake schedules so far but they will have three tougher tests if they want to finish undefeated.

They host SMU (6-3) next Saturday then visit Tulsa (6-3 but undefeated in conference) the following Friday. If they get through those, they'll play in the C-USA conference championship game, likely against ranked Southern Miss (9-1). Should they win all of those, they would be 13-0 and would surely get whatever BCS bowl bid is reserved for the non-BCS conference representative. It's possible they might still get there even with a loss but it would be dicey.

The offense will certainly score points but the defense is not very good which is going to be the big worry. Could they stop a good team?

[Warren]

To get a BCS berth they have to either:

• Win C-USA,
• Finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings, and
• Finish ranked higher in the BCS than the MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and WAC champions

or

• Win C-USA,
• Finish in the top 16 of the BCS rankings,
• Finish ranked higher in the BCS than any one of the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, or SEC champions, and
• Finish ranked higher in the BCS than the MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and WAC champions

So basically win out and they're in, unless Boise State manages to win the Mountain West and stay ranked above them.

It's also theoretically possible that they could get an at-large berth if they don't win C-USA, but extremely unlikely since they would drop in the rankings with a loss.

[barrett]

One more win and it's a sure thing. They beat Tulsa today worse than ou, osu, or Boise did. It doesn't make the better than those teams, but it shows that with the defense they've played the 2nd half of the season, they are in the same zip code. Here's hoping to the sugar bowl so they are close enough to have some fans show up.

[HPF Bob]

Through Tulsa, a comparison can be made:

@ Oklahoma 47, Tulsa 14 (33 pt difference)
Oklahoma St. 58, @ Tulsa 33 (25 pt difference)
@ Boise St. 41, Tulsa 21 (20 pt difference)
Houston 48, @ Tulsa 16 (32 pt difference)

If UH goes undefeated, I'd support having them playing for the National Championship.

[barrett]

I'm a fan and alum, but I would not support it. They were not counting on keenum being around when they scheduled this year, and they left off the Okstate, miss st, Texas tech of recent years. That was a conscious choice that looked smart at the time, but ended up giving them one of the weakest schedules in the country. Tough luck, but there are about 15 million reasons to be comforted by a BCS game. That and the new stadium they are breaking ground on should be enough to keep things rolling after case. I just hope sumlin sees the upside.

[HPF Bob]

I've said this about Boise St., TCU and Utah before this so I am being consistent. Either these conferences are I-A or they aren't and if they are, their undefeated season should be every bit as respected as if they were in the Big East or the Pac-12, regardless of who is on their schedule. Last week, the vaunted SEC had opponents like Samford, Georgia Southern and The Ciradel (and by scheduling that low, they expose a loophole that says only 1-A opponents are factored into the RPI for the computer rankings so Alabama isn't punished at all for playing a non 1-A school but Houston gets punished for playing Tulane, for example).

Now, if there were three undefeated 1-A schools, I think strength of schedule ought to be a major determining factor but now we are down to two so I think it is only fair that those last two undefeateds play for the championship.

But the BCS is rigged so a non-AQ school will never play for the championship so it is a moot point, but it shouldn't be. And if you feel non-AQ conferences are inherently inferior, they should have their own championship and their own tier and are told straight out that they "don't count" in terms of winning the national championship.

[barrett]

If UH scheduled like 2 years ago and beat Okstate and tech they'd be playing for the title. Instead they chose an easy schedule. I'm not talking in their non-conference, I am talking the games they chose.

The last two years they had national aspirations and scheduled accordingly. This year they thought they'd be breaking in a new QB and they took themselves out of the title race before it began.

[Nconroe]

Congrats to Zcougars opn their big win over Tulsa. They are getting decent recognitio now. One more win and they will be in a very nice bowl game on national Tv.