Who in their right mind decided that Northern Illinois should get the at-large bid over the University of Oklahoma? It should be OU vs Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
OU is one the short list of teams nobody wants to see win. UNtil there is some sort of top 8 or top 10-12 playoff college rankings mean bupkiss.
Example Alabama loses and only drops 2 spots to move right back to a #2 position. A likes of OU, Kansas St, or Notre Dame had lost they would have dropped out of top 10 (as they did early on).
Which game is going to have more fans in Pro Player Stadium, The Orange Bowl, or a typical Miami Hurricanes home game?
This boggles the mind. Northern Illinois best win was over Kansas or Kent State. They lost to Iowa.
OU underachieves, but would crush the directional school.
Good call. You’re right.
Nobody in their right mind would pick NIU. But because NIU was ranked higher than Rose Bowl bound 5 loss Wisconsin and the Big Least Champion Louisville NIU gets an automatic BCS bid.
The rules of the BCS mandated Northern Illinois get the slot. This is the same rule that Boise State could never get the stars to align correctly for. You can thank Wisconsin, I believe.
This surprised me too.
What did it was the human polls, not the computers. Usually the less prestigious teams (Boise State in ‘08, Miami of Ohio in ‘03), the computer rating is higher than the human poll rating.
Also NIU’s win over Kent State vaulted them 6 slots in the polls. That’s quite a rise for a fairly evenly matched opponent. (21st vs. 17th going into the game).