{mosimage}It seems like an NCAA Basketball Tournament selection show, but there is no Tourney in college football; this is the BCS, hear me ROAR! As Fox scrapes together a few old coaches, now NFL analysts, to intelligently talk about the college football landscape we commoners wait patiently as the media gods announce to two best teams (according to a connect-the-dots body of work). Then, the Simpsons comes on Fox and it's time to debate things and turn the channel to Sunday Night Football. Only after of course the boys and Fox have mocked our wanting to find out who people with power think is most deserving or best.

Thus is life in the BCS, a process as confusing as that first paragraph. This year Georgia got screwed the most, followed by USC and Virginia Tech. But really, just Georgia because they had been playing so well and beat down teams like Florida. USC has played well but lost to Stanford. When Virginia Tech played LSU earlier this year, they made last year's championship game look close. So, they are out. Kansas is Kansas. Oklahoma is really good but they can forget about a title just because.

An LSU-OSU pairing in the title game is what we are left with and it should be an exciting game. Will it live up to the hype? Hell no! No game lives up to the rediculous hype that comes with a 37-51 day layoff (37 for LSU, 51 for OSU) in between games. Or, I guess a 37 day layoff since the game was formally announced.

Although, I'm calling it a 38 day layoff for the fun of it. This is because during the fourth quarter of the Missouri-Oklahoma Big 12 conference championship game, Kirk Herbstreit said it would be Ohio State and LSU. Just hearing the words come out of his mouth, you knew he was right. Big 10 Champion vs. SEC Champion. Can the Buckeyes make up for last year's thrashing? Can Les Miles win the biggest game of his life against his most hated team?

Here is what the final bowl alignments look like:

First off, that GMAC bowl game featuring Bowling Green and Tulsa is going to be intense (sarcasm noted). Looking at the Bowl games, it is worthy of note that the Big 10 conference had 2 teams selected to BCS games in a year deamed as a terrible year for the Big Ten. 8 Teams overall from the Big Ten were selected to Bowl games.

Where am I leaning or what games are too close to call?

Purdue starts off against MAC champion, Central Michigan--Purdue lean
Boston College vs. Michigan State--Boston College lean
Penn State vs. Texas A&M--Toss Up
Indiana vs. Oklahoma State-Toss Up
Wisconsin vs. Tennessee-Tennessee lean
Michigan vs. UF--UF lean
Illinois vs. USC--USC lean
Ohio State vs. LSU--Toss Up

So, for all of you keeping score, that's 1 Big Ten lean and 3 toss ups. That leaves 4 games where I think the opponent should be favored.

All season I thought this might be the year where the Big 10 won't be over-hyped as far as bowl selections go. That's right, the conference deemed as the worst conference all year long, I was hoping, would not be placed into too good of bowl games. I was wrong. Money sells. The Big 10 travels well and if they have enough qualifiers, they are going to get selected. I think it's fair to say if they go 4-4 the bowl season is a raging success. To top that off, if they can win the title game, plus a Michigan or Illinois upset (highly unlikely), then they can collectively roll around like a pig in shit.

Paricularly interesting for Big Ten fans are the top 4 bowl games, 3 of the 4 against opponents ranked significantly higher. 3 of the games against SEC foes, a conference deemed as the best in the land. Then you have USC a team now called the best in the land and a program who has drilled whatever Big 10 team they have faced recently(they get a crack at OSU next year). This lineup may not be as intimidating as a Big 10-ACC challenge, a challenge the Big 10 has never won, but it's not far behind.

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