For UConn, it’s pretty simple. Win against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday in Morgantown, West Virginia and they will receive the Big East’s BCS bid. If they lose, it was thought they might go to the Brut Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX.
Well it’s not looking that simple anymore. Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register spoke with the Sun Bowl’s selection committee chairman John Folmer again this week and got a different story then last week.
“The general consensus is there could be three teams that finish 9-3,” Folmer said. “It’s going to be a tough decision to make. Some guys are saying ‘Why Connecticut?’ Some are saying ‘Why not Connecticut?’ At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to who comes out with the highest-ranked team. Then the question is, which ranking do we use? Do we use our own ranking? Do we use the BCS? Do we use the AP top 25 or the coaches poll?”
“It’s probably going to come down to who is the highest-ranked team,” Folmer said. “That could hurt Connecticut. Then again, it might not hurt them. We took an informal poll three times, and all three times the outcome was different because someone was influenced by someone else’s argument.”
Chip goes on to add his thoughts and I have to agree with him.
To me, it now sounds like a UConn loss and Cincinnati win will mean Cincinnati gets the nod (where they may face off with Oregon, now looking like a sure bet for the Pac-10 opponent in El Paso). UConn is currently the higher ranked team in every way, but Cincinnati is close enough that it will overtake the Huskies in all the ranking systems (except, of course, for the Big East standings).
He adds that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte swoops up the Huskies if they don’t make a BCS bowl and the Sun Bowl goes another way.
I’d love for the Huskies to win on Saturday afternoon. It won’t be an easy task by no means. But then again, no one, maybe other than the team itself, thought they would be in this position to be contending for the BCS berth this season.
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