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Chopper, you might not like this:
Monday, November 11
ND may be more appealing than Texas to bowl officials
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By Ivan Maisel
ESPN.com
If the standings remain as they are -- and of course, they won't, but let's pretend they will -- Texas can forget not only the Fiesta Bowl, but the other BCS games as well.
Here's how the BCS bowls will look.
Fiesta: Miami vs. Ohio State
Rose: Iowa vs. Washington State
Orange: Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma
Sugar: Florida State vs. Georgia
Tyrone Willingham and ND may end up squeezing the 'Horns out of the BCS bowl mix.
If Miami is ranked first, then the Orange Bowl will declare the Big East champion as its host team. The 'Canes would be put in the Fiesta and then the Orange would get first pick among the at-large teams. The Orange Bowl wants the Irish even if they lose to USC and fall to 10-2.
"We have to put asses in seats. Notre Dame will fill us up," Art Hertz, a past president of the game, said Saturday in Knoxville. "The way the system is now, if we don't sell our tickets, we're in the hole."
That's no small consideration. The Orange Bowl ticket this year is $100.
The Rose, which would lose Ohio State to the Fiesta, would then get second pick and happily take Iowa. The Hawkeyes are not only a top-five team, but their selection would keep the Big Ten in the game. That keeps a happy marriage between the Tournament of Roses and the Big Ten.
Though Florida State has earned a reputation for not travelling very well, the Sugar won't care who is playing the SEC champion as long as Georgia, which hasn't been to New Orleans since 1982, LSU or Auburn is in the game. All three schools would fill the Superdome to the roof.
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