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Why must PSU still worry about Purdue if they don't play each other. If both teams go 12-0 and don't play each other, both will make a BCS game I'm sure. But, in this case, ONE can't ELIMINATE the other from contending for the BCS.

Moldo, the Big Ten champion has an automatic BCS bid. The Laurel Highlands championship is meaningless in a playoff format unless the "winner" has a guaranteed playoff position, like "no. 1 seed".

I can't wait until Pitt accepts the offer to join the Big 10 and they must start to worry about Purdue.

But getting the automatic bid doesn't PRECLUDE another BIg Ten team from getting a BCS bid. So why worry about Purdue if you BOTH have great records and haven't played each other during the regular season.

Forget the Big East. At least they have played well in BCS games and have proved their worthiness over time. How about we get rid of the ACC or at least add the Mountain West? How is the ACC better than the Mountain West? The Mountain West has more BCS wins than the ACC this decade despite not having an automatic bid. The ACC is a joke. It is where good programs go to die. I don't care about scheduling or number of teams. I care about quality and the the ACC is pathetic.

AE, One thing to correct you on....and I must say you are usually right on with facts but... when you said " By NCAA law, if you have 12 members, you MUST play a conference championship game." You are incorrect.

You do not HAVE to play a conference championship game. You are merely permitted to do so. When the SEC and Big 12 moved to 12 teams in the 90's they pulled a little known rule out of the hat to allow conference championship games. It was a rule put in and intended for small college teams prior to Div. I-AA, II, and III playoffs. The first conference to utilize this rule was actually our own local Div. II conference, the PSAC

Well, I respectfully disagree. I am under the impression, from all I have seen, that a 12 team conference must play in at least 2 divisions and play a title game.

Wildcat, you can forget your idea to get rid of the auto bid in the ACC. ACC is a good conference and they make money. There's no way, no matter how bad it gets, that the ACC will ever lose that bid. Same goes for all the real conferences, i.e. BCS conferences not counting the BE.

How is the ACC a good conference? What is that based upon? Are we talking basketball? Well, then, the Big East is also better. But basketball actually has a sane postseason. I digress...

Excerpt from an article that appeared in ncaa news at

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ ... +-+6-23-03

Key word is this legislation "allowed" conference championship game, didn't "mandate."

BY GARY T. BROWN
The NCAA News

It's unlikely that the origin of the rule establishing 12 as the number of teams required for a conference to conduct a postseason football championship will ever show up as a trivia question, but if it does, anyone keen on Division II history will have an advantage.
Bylaw 17.11.5.2-(c) allows a conference to stage a football championship game between divisional winners only in leagues of at least 12 teams. That provision is playing a significant role in the current conference jockeying occurring in Division I.
However, the rule's roots actually are in Division II.
The proposal was No. 125 at the 1987 NCAA Convention. It was sponsored by the Division II Steering Committee on behalf of Division II's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, two leagues at the time large enough to operate in a divisional structure. And since it was 1987 -- 10 years before the Association federated its governance -- when a federated piece of legislation was proposed, all three divisions voted on it regardless of whether it affected them. Thus, the 12-institution rule became law for Division I as well.
It was the device that was used when the Southeastern Conference became the first Division I league to expand to 12 teams in 1992. The SEC postseason conference championship game generated millions in additional revenues and became a model for other conferences to follow. Now, in addition to the SEC, the Big 12 and Mid-American Conferences have championship games, and the Atlantic Coast and Mountain West Conferences are considering the 12-school approach as well.