OT: FSU vs Northern Illinois in Orange Bowl...

College football has become very messy over the years. Very political and all about the money and not the best matchups.

Interested to see what Vegas does with the spread in this game

Considering the alternative was Louisville, I don't see where the TV ratings/ticket sales are going to suffer that much.

For whatever reason it just clicked to me that OSU being ranked #3 in the AP poll means they are ahead of FLA and Oregon.  I realize FLA and Oregon both have a loss but FLA lost to #6 Georgia (and beat FSU, LSU, Texas A&M, and South Carlina) and Oregon lost to #8 Stanford (and beat Washington, Arizona, USC, and Oregon St).  OSU has not beaten a single top 15 team.  Does anyone think OSU would beat Oregon or FLA?  OSU should be #6 IMO.

Predictor ratings:

• 1. Alabama 98.96
• 2. Oregon 95.72
• 3. Notre Dame 93.16
• 4. Kansas State 93.06
• 6. Florida 91.32
• 9. Stanford 88.83
• 14. Florida State 86.24
• 20. Wisconsin 83.39
• 41. Northern Illinois 77.22
• 60. Louisville 72.25

Predicted spreads (ignoring possible home field advantages for teams playing near home):

• Alabama 6 over Notre Dame
• Oregon 2 1/2 over Kansas State
• Stanford 5 1/2 over Wisconsin
• Florida State 9 over Northern Illinois
• Florida 19 over Louisville

Good for N.Illinois.  

What if it was Georgia Tech vs NIU

OMG Utah can never beat mighty Alabama.  OMG Boise St can never beat Oklahoma.  OMG TCU can't hang with the big boys on the big stage.  OMG Kansas can't hang with Virginia Tech.  OMG West Virginia can't hang with big-bad Georgia.

Do we never learn?

I bet N. Illinois wouldn't have lost to the lowly Wolfpack earlier this year.  Let them play the game; they'll be just fine against the all-mighty Florida State.

Whatever happened to surprises? Some people like watching the bowl selection show without knowing the opponents. This is almost as bad as the real reporter who prefers to be the first to announce something, despite being correct.

the orange bowl always seems to be the biggest joke of the 4 major bowls. why let it stop now, i suppose? i'm inclined to pick an fsu blowout. but then again, its fsu.

FSU lost to a mediocre NC State team and barely beat GT. NIU could beat them. Plus who cares about who plays in the BCS anyway. Half the time the teams that make it don't deserve to be there.

Nobody gave boise a shot in hell at beating oklahoma...nobody gave utah a shot in hell at beating bama...

I may be one of the few people who likes the bowl system, but the way the teams are chosen needs to be fixed.

Will.  Not.  Watch. 

this is a joke.. all those years Boise State had one loss and made like one BCS game..  I guess Florida St will have a good New Year

Good for the Noles.  They deserve this game after that extremely tough schedule they played this year...

Murray State, Savannah State, Wake Forest, South Florida, Boston College, Miami, Duke, VaTech, Maryland, Georgia Tech with losses to Florida and 7-5 NC State.

Maybe this was on purpose.  If you play that kind of schedule, you deserve to play against a MAC team in your bowl game.  Just the fact that you're ranked 13th with that kind of competition is extremely generous. 

Now we see the problem with guaranteeing a team a BCS berth if it makes a certain ranking... because I have little doubt that many of the pollsters said, "you know what, let's put Northern Illinois in the BCS."  In other words, the system changed the voting patterns, which it should not do.  Hell, the announcers at the MAC CG were pretty much unable to hide their enthusiasm for Kent State with the assumption that Kent State would go to the Orange Bowl if they won.

...would a Big 12 Championship game have changed any of this or will Oklahoma be left out regardless?

As much of a joke this is (NIU ranked higher than Michigan? Northwestern? Nebraska? Who knows), the $$$$$ that this program and the MAC will get is great for them. The MAC is a lot more than those Tuesday night 60-55 shootouts, I'm pretty sure that of all non BCS-AQ conferences they have the best record when playing against AQ conferences (I'll look for the stat). They've produced lots of professional level talent, and I'm all for seeing these non Big Six football conferences get better, for the competitive balance of football and for the occasional upset. Except for Toledo....

I'm pulling for the little guy in this one. Hopefully some exposure and a marquee win, albeit unlikely, gets some people fired up to take MAC football to the next level.

They should just call the Cotton Bowl a BCS game. Every year that ends up being one of the top matchups.

over Louisville? Applying the arguments used upthread:

first, here's Louisville's OOC results:

• 32-14 over Kentucky (2-10)
• 35-7 over Missouri St. (3-8, FCS)
• 39-34 over North Carolina (8-4)
• 21-17 @ Southern Mississippi (0-12)

Not too impressive if you ask me--that last result is far worse than NIU's close loss to Iowa back when Iowa still had a couple of running backs. Credit for nipping UNC at home, though.

And here's the MAC against the Big East head to head:

• Kent State 35, Rutgers 23
• Cincinnati 52, Miami 14
• Toledo 29, Cincinnati 23
• Pittsburgh 20, Buffalo 16
• Western Michigan 30, Connecticut 24
• Connecticut 24, Buffalo 17
• Ball State 31, South Florida 27

If a one-loss MAC team shouldn't get in because they're in the MAC, how do you justify a team with two losses in a conference that had a losing record against the MAC? Even the Big East co-champions had a losing record, combined,  against the MAC.

NIU is 19 spots ahead and 5 points ahead of Louisville on the Sagarin predictor, 19 spots and 6 1/2 points ahead of Louisville on the Massey power rating.

I'm happy for UNI.  Glad the little guys got recognition by the BCS for a change.

I guess I should be happy for the little guy getting some respect but I'm not sure why this year, all of the sudden, the MAC champion is getting love in the rankings. 

Marshall's 1999 team with Chad Pennington went 13-0 and Miami's 2003 team with Ben Roethlisberger went 13-1, both of those squads had better resumes than this year's Northern Illinois squad yet weren't even close to getting a BCS birth.  NIU, although they should have beaten Iowa in week one, did not really play anyone with a pulse until the MAC championship game.  And they barely escaped a 9 loss Army team by 1 point. 

I just don't think that resume deserves a BCS game. 

I expect FL to curb stomp Louisville with their defense. They might have only 100 yds of offense and still win 20+. They had 29 yds in the first half vs Soiuth Carolina and still notched 21 points. Muschamp will turn them loose. FSU should pummel NIU but the Seminoles are notorious slackers. Win by 10 with sloppy play by FSU. Once again we are robbed of great regional match-ups like OKLA vs Florida or Oregon vs Georgia to test schemes and top coaches.

if you ever supported Boise making the Fiesta Bowl, you have zero right to bitch

I hope NIU beats FSU.  I know almost nobody thinks they can pull the upset, but stranger things have happened.

Man FSU couldn't of had it any easier. Georgia 'navy' Tech followed by NIU for a BCS trophy, not to mention the atrocity that is the ACC that they got to play all year. If we were in the Big Least or the ACC we would have went to back to back title games. I would never endorse such a move but holy hell they had an easy ride.