Judge rules against the BCS enforces rule change
February 23rd, 2011
The judge overseeing the case of Shurtleff v. The BCS has ruled in favor of Shurtleff. However the sentence will not be ushering in a new playoff system for the Bowl Subdivision of Division One, rather it will feature a new relegation system that will provide one of two things in order to allow for a more fluid experience. The first of which is basis for which a team will remain in an Automatic Qualifying conference and the basis by which a conference will retain it's Automatic Qualifier status. While certain conferences can consider themselves safe, some see themselves on the fringe.
The safe conferences which will retain any form of evaluation for the upcoming ten seasons will be the Big Ten (12), the Pacific Twelve and the Southeastern Conference. The three Automatic conferences have sported solid performances without much decay in overall presence. The three fringe Automatic Qualifying conferences will see themselves evaluated every five years, starting after this upcoming season. The fringe conferences of course being the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East and oddly the Big Twelve. The Big Twelve is on the verge of implosion after losing both Nebraska and Colorado their membership dwindled well below the needed for a conference championship.
The Big Twelve is also rumored to being at risk of losing the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners may find themselves jumping ship if Texas decides to leave. The Big Twelve is the best of the fringe conferences with Texas and Oklahoma staying put and several other contenders starting to rise, unless they see more movement they should be alright and retain their status soundly enough to retain automatic qualifier status.
In order to gain or maintain the 'AQ' status the conference has to stay in the top six (averaged) of the following categories.
W-L Percentage:
Out of Conference W-L Percentage:
Bowl Game Winning Percentage:
Other factors that can become a true factor is the highest ranked member and quality wins versus other conferences. Another statement was that if the extremely rare and odd situation that a team plays an opponent in a bowl game from the same conference (which should never happen) than the game will not come to apply in the Bowl game winning percentage.
A factor that should affect the more current outlook of the college landscape will be the new system of relegation and gains. It will provide a more fluid conference landscape while maintaining some of the old rivalries and faces. One bad year will not knock out a team as the mediation session between conference commissioners, the BCS committee and the judge overseeing the case have reached that if over a given span a team shows skill on the field and on the recruiting front a team will be promoted, either at the loss of another team or adding a new member.
The first slated moves of Texas Christian to the Big East and a few other select moves, will still carry through. The judge has not put any interest of preventing any teams from establishing themselves in the NCAA. First round of evaluations will be looming after this initial season and some of it may spell disaster for members of certain conferences. The Big Twelve is highly at risk of implosion and falling to anonymity. The Big East seems to be on the seat of Automatic Qualifiers and the Atlantic Coast conference is by no means safe.
This upcoming season has a lot looming and as the face of the NCAA looks to be leaning towards four super conferences the only general consensus among heads of conferences is that the 'elite' conferences should all have a Championship game, which means more teams getting a shot with the Big East greatly needing expansion.
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