What If The BCS Ran College Basketball?

by Sean Keeley on Apr 2, 2009 7:28 PM EDT Comment 23 comments

Inspired by the genius over the The Onion, I decided to try and figure out what the college basketball post-season would look like if we had "bowls" for college basketball. I had some ground rules:

I'll use the AP Poll as my "BCS" rankings.
Same rules as football, BCS Conference champions get auto-BCS bids. At-large bids determined by any non-BCS teams highly ranked and remaining at-large teams.
I will try my best to stick to bowl-conference affiliations.
Mid-Major bowl affiliations will be re-imagined amongst the different conferences in basketball.
Keep the same order in which the bowls are played.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19th

Eagle Bank Bowl, Washington, D.C.

Virginia Tech (19-15) vs. Cornell (21-10)

FRIDAY, MARCH 20th

New Mexico Bowl, Albuquerque, N.M.

New Mexico (22-12) vs. Stephen F. Austin (24-8)

SATURDAY, MARCH 21st

St. Petersburg Bowl, St. Petersburg, Fl.

VCU (24-10) vs. Temple (22-12)

Las Vegas Bowl, Las Vegas, Nev.

Utah State (30-5) vs. Portland State (23-10)

New Orleans Bowl, New Orleans, La.

Tulsa (25-11) vs. Cleveland State (26-11)

SUNDAY, MARCH 22nd

Poinsettia Bowl, San Diego, Calif.

#10 Gonzaga (24-6) vs. Arizona (21-14)

Hawaii Bowl, Honolulu, Hawaii

Cal (22-11) vs. St. Mary's (28-7)

Motor City Bowl, Detroit, Mich.

Minnesota (22-11) vs. North Dakota State (26-7)

THURSDAY, MARCH 26th

Meineke Car Care Bowl, Charlotte, N.C.

#13 Syracuse (28-10) vs. #24 Clemson (23-9)

FRIDAY, MARCH 27th

Champs Sports Bowl, Orlando, Fla

Boston College (22-12) vs. Michigan (21-14)

Emerald Bowl, San Francisco, Calif

#19 Arizona State (25-10) vs. Baylor (24-14)

SATURDAY, MARCH 28th

Independence Bowl, Shreveport, La.

Kansas State (22-12) vs. Vanderbilt (19-12)

Papajohns.com Bowl, Birmingham, Ala

Notre Dame (21-15) vs. Western Kentucky (25-9)

Alamo Bowl, San Antonio, Texas

Ohio State (22-11) vs. Texas A&M (24-10)

Holiday Bowl, San Diego, Calif.

#15 Washington (26-9) vs. #14 Kansas (27-8)

SUNDAY, MARCH 29th

Humanitarian Bowl, Boise, Idaho

BYU (25-8) vs. Miami (19-13)

Texas Bowl, Houston, Texas

#23 Marquette (25-10) vs. Texas (23-12)

Armed Forces Bowl, Fort Worth, Texas

#25 Utah (24-10) vs. Creighton (27-8)

Sun Bowl, El Paso, Texas

#18 UCLA (26-9) vs. #11 Villanova (30-7)

THURSDAY, APRIL 2nd

Music City Bowl, Nashville, Tenn

Maryland (21-14) vs. Providence (19-14)

FRIDAY, APRIL 3rd

Insight Bowl, Tempe, Ariz.

Oklahoma State (23-12) vs. Wisconsin (20-13)

SATURDAY, APRIL 4th

Chick-fil-A Bowl, Atlanta, Ga

#16 Florida State (25-10) vs. Tennessee (21-13)

Outback Bowl, Tampa, Fla.

Penn State (26-11) vs. South Caroliona (21-10)

Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, Fla

#5 UConn (31-4) vs. #13 Wake Forest (24-7)

Capital One Bowl, Orlando, Fla

Illinois (24-10) vs. #21 LSU (27-8)

Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.

#17 Purdue (27-10, Big Ten Champ) vs. USC (22-13, Pac-10 Champ)

SUNDAY, APRIL 5th

Orange Bowl, Miami, Fla

#6 Duke (30-7, ACC Champ) vs. #4 Pittsburgh (31-5. At-Large)

Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas

#7 Oklahoma (30-6) vs. Auburn (24-12)

Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tenn

#22 Butler (26-6) vs. Florida (25-11)

Sugar Bowl, New Orleans, La

Mississippi State (23-13, SEC Champ) vs. #3 Memphis (33-4. At-Large)

International Bowl, Toronto, Ont.

West Virginia (23-12) vs. Dayton (27-8)

MONDAY, April 6th

Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Ariz.

#9 Missouri (31-7, Big 12 Champ) vs. #8 Michigan State (30-6, At-Large)

GMAC Bowl, Mobile, Ala

#20 Xavier (27-8) vs. Siena (27-8)

TUESDAY, April 7th

BCS Championship Game, Miami, Fla.

#1 Louisville (31-6, Big East Champ) vs. #2 North Carolina (32-4, At-Large)

Note: BCS At-Large bids granted to Memphis, North Carolina, Pitt and Michigan State. Since only two teams from a conference can get BCS bids in a given year, UConn was pushed out. And due to Memphis qualifying, Oklahoma got pushed out of the last spot.

Note #2: As silly as this looks, it isn't any dumber than what we actually do for college football.

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Comments

This shows

exactly why College football needs a playoff.

by nleary66 on Apr 2, 2009 7:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

as a xavier alum, i would have flown to boise effing idaho for the first two rounds of the tournament before i shelled out cash to head to alabama to watch them play the mac champions.

you can bet nova fans wouldn’t show up in el paso, texas for a thursday night game.

so many gripes with the bcs but ill stop. seriously this just shows the extraordinarily awful idea that is the college football post-season.

by Nick Fasulo on Apr 2, 2009 8:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Imagine flying cross country to

watch your team play a meaningless game against an opponent you don’t care about and which the result will not matter to anyone.

Oh…right.

by Sean Keeley on Apr 2, 2009 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Overall, it was awesome.

Just a question:

Was regular season or conference tournament used to decide conference champion?

You’ve done both. For instance, my Kansas Jayhawks are listed as Big 12 Champs, because we won the regular season. But Michigan State, our opponent, won the Big 10 regular season but lost in the Big 10 Tournament (just as Kansas did), yet is listed as an at-large, with the Big 10 Tournament Champion Purdue being listed.

Judging from what else you have listed, I imagine that Kansas being listed as BIg 12 Champs is the mistake. Thought I’d ask, though.

by rockchalk on Apr 2, 2009 8:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You know what

You’re right. I was under the impression Kansas won. I’m going to swap them out with Missou…

by Sean Keeley on Apr 2, 2009 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You're in the Holiday Bowl now

by Sean Keeley on Apr 2, 2009 8:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

lol, that's what you get for opening your mouth

by The JuggerNitt on Apr 3, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I know, seriously.

I take it all back.

I want the Fiesta Bowl!

by rockchalk on Apr 4, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mizzou*

by n8dawg on Apr 3, 2009 2:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I knew I loved the BCS system, I could have watched the Orange playing in Charlotte dang it.

by Orange Chuck on Apr 2, 2009 8:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would have liked that game… would have liked beating Clemson very much, especially after the bounced us out of the NIT a couple of years ago.

by Trapped_In_ACC_Hell on Apr 3, 2009 8:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why aren’t we in the International Bowl?

by wildcatlh on Apr 2, 2009 10:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

If only we tried a little less...

we’d be there.

by Sean Keeley on Apr 2, 2009 11:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is great stuff

We would kick South Carolina’s ass!

"Breaststroke, free style," Rubin said of his technique, "Let’s see Phelps do that one."

by ReadingRambler on Apr 2, 2009 10:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

and also...

this whole concept would inhibit us from the ultimate male rite of passage: skipping class / work on that first thursday and friday of the tournament.

by Nick Fasulo on Apr 2, 2009 11:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah but...

…that national title matchup looks pretty good.

"(BARF)" - Donovan McNabb, during his game winning drive against Virginia Tech in 1998

by kotite4ever on Apr 3, 2009 9:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

HA nice nunes

can you imagine basketball teams waiting 30-40 days to play one game?

I’m for it!

I keed I keed

by Timmy L. on Apr 3, 2009 10:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Think we could get President Obama and Congress to endorse this plan instead, I love it.

by Orange Chuck on Apr 3, 2009 9:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hater

by Sean Keeley on Apr 4, 2009 12:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

For the true 'bowl' style, though...

you need another 30 or 40 bowls so that half the teams in Division I get a bowl game
3/4 of the bowls should be intraditional college basketball-heavy areas; the west and south should have almost no games, while there are three ‘bowls’ in Indiana for no logical reason; when we have an awful season, we play in the Carrier Bowl at the Dome
selection for the ‘BCS bowls’ (in New York City/Big East, Indianapolis/Big Ten vs. Big 12, Charlotte/ACC, and LA/Pac 10) and national title game will be strictly determined by formula of 1/3 Coach’s poll, 1/3 some random poll because the AP won’t play along, and 1/3 RPI rating, except that the BCS conference champions will get autobids

by drothgery on Apr 4, 2009 11:01 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs