Goin' Bowlin' 2011: Schools who Travel

I love what little remains of the purity of college football, compared to the industrial machine that is the NFL. I love the tradition, the excitement, the rivalry, and, above all else, my Alma mater, Texas.

But the thing that turns me off the most, in our BCS-driven world, is the preferential treatment given to schools that travel. Yes, I can hear you shout me down as I say this, having just provided full disclosure in the last paragraph that I attended one of the largest universities in the U.S. It sucks. They can, and often do, receive preferential treatment.

Case in point, this year's Sugar Bowl. Michigan vs. Virginia Tech? Huh? The BCS took two...TWO...ACC schools? It's bad enough we're saddled with one of them by default every year in the Orange Bowl. That's the one I usually tune out with very little effort. But seriously, Michigan squeaks out a 10-2 season in which they didn't beat a superior Michigan State team, yet they get a BCS invite because their fan base is starved by several consecutive years of football irrelevance. My opinion says Michigan State, who barely lost to a very good Wisconsin team in the Big 10 Championship Game, should be the one headed to play in the Big Easy instead of their rivals from Ann Arbor. On the opposite side of the field to MSU should be Boise State with an at-large bid, but they were snubbed by the VA Tech Hokies. Snubbed how? Boise State's lone loss was by one point against a solid TCU team; Virginia Tech didn't win its own Conference. Another point? Boise State's best win came on the road against the self-proclaimed mighty SEC's Georgia, who ended up #16 in the final BCS standings and made an appearance in their Conference's championship game; Virginia Tech bested Georgia Tech, who finished with a ranking anyone affiliated with the BCS would snicker at. The Sugar Bowl should be Michigan State vs. Boise State this year. Heck, even Kansas State could make an argument for an appearance in New Orleans, having finished at #8, ahead of VA Tech's #11 and Michigan's #13. Baloney.

So instead, these three deserving schools get shipped off to a confluence of mediocrity bowls. Michigan State in the Outback Bowl; K-State to the Cotton, which hasn't been what the name implies to older generations in about a generation; and Boise gets the biggest slap in the face, tumbling into the sadness of the Las Vegas Bowl to face a barely .500 Arizona State.

While the Sugar Bowl will make quite a sum of money on the teams who will travel well to the game, perhaps they won't attract nearly the number of TV eyes they might have if they appealed to the college football fan at-large. I won't be watching this one.