Humanitarian or Bust

Listen to the Guru's Podcast with Jay Christensen of The Wiz of Odds.




UCLA and Notre Dame are rivals. Maybe not so much on the gridiron, but there was a day that these two schools competed fiercely in basketball. After all, it was Digger Phelps' Fighting Irish who ended the Bruins' historic 88-game winning streak in 1974.

But today, UCLA should send a thank-you note to South Bend. For it was Notre Dame's decision to sit out the bowl games that opened the door for the Bruins to extend their season.

As of Friday, UCLA looked to be the odd team out: The only BCS conference school that's bowl eligible but unable to find a spot to play anywhere. The Pac-10, once again, had eggs on its face, with its inability to get more attractive bowl matchups for its conference teams, never mind enough of them to place all bowl eligible teams.

Take a look at the conference tie-in table here:

SEC - 8 (12 member schools)
ACC - 8 (12)
Big 12 - 7 (12)
Big Ten - 6 (11)
Big East - 5 (8)
Mountain West - 5 (9)
Pac-10 - 5 (10)
Conference USA - 5 (12)
WAC - 3 (9)
MAC - 3 (13)
Sun Belt - 1 (9)
Army/Navy - 2 (2)

As you can see, the Pac-10 has by far the worst bowl tie-in ratio among BCS conferences, and it's even worse than the one that Mountain West has. In addition, with the Pac-10 perennially left out of the at-large pool for BCS bowls and its weak bowl affiliations, its member schools suffer in terms of postseason revenue as well.

Without Notre Dame bowing out of the bowl picture, the epithet of this UCLA season would've been Pete Carroll's decision to dial up a bomb in a 28-7 USC victory after Rick Neuheisel refused to accept the Trojans' offer of truce. Now, at least the Bruins get to frolic on Boise's blue turf, leaving the Little Caesars Bowl with potentially two MAC teams.

Pizza, Pizza.

UPDATE: UCLA decided to take the risk of waiting for the Army-Navy game, accepting a conditional bid to the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., and eschewing the Humanitarian Bowl. If Navy wins, the Bruins will play Temple. If Army wins, the Bruins will stay home. Little Caesars Bowl ends up with an almost all-MAC bowl, with Marshall, a former MAC member, facing Ohio.

Here's one final look at the bowl picture before tonight's selection show. With 68 teams slated to play in 34 bowl games, there are 71 eligible teams with one game still remaining (Army vs. Navy):

BCS BOUND (10)
Alabama (SEC)
Texas (Big 12)
Cincinnati (Big East)
TCU (non-BCS automatic)
Oregon (Pac-10)
Ohio State (Big Ten)
Georgia Tech (ACC)
Boise State (at-large)
Florida (at-large)
Iowa or Penn State (at-large)

BOWL QUALIFIED (50) - teams with at least 7 wins
Clemson
Virginia Tech
North Carolina
Boston College
Miami (Fla.)
West Virginia
Pittsburgh
South Florida
Rutgers
Connecticut
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Nebraska
Missouri
Texas Tech
Penn State or Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
USC
Oregon State
Arizona
Stanford
California
LSU
South Carolina
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Auburn
Kentucky
Tennessee
Georgia
BYU
Utah
Air Force
Nevada
Idaho
Fresno State
Houston
Central Florida
Southern Miss
East Carolina
SMU
Navy
Temple
Ohio
Central Michigan
Northern Illinois
Bowling Green
Troy
Middle Tennessee State

BOWL ELIGIBLE (11) - Teams with 6 wins
Florida State
Iowa State
Texas A&M
Michigan State
Minnesota
Notre Dame +
UCLA *
Wyoming
Marshall
Louisiana-Monroe ^
Louisiana-Lafayette ^

+ Opted not to participate in the postseason
^ Will not receive bowl bids

ON THE BRINK (1)
Army *

* If Army defeats Navy on Saturday, the Black Knights will play in the EagleBank Bowl, replacing UCLA.