There's a decent chance more than one "non-BCS" school will finish in the top 12.
The biggest blow-back scenario would be BYU and East Carolina both ending up in the top 12 and East Carolina getting left out at the expense of the Big East or ACC champion.
What if those champions are West Virginia and Virginia Tech, teams East Carolina defeated this year?
The ACC is 1-9 in BCS bowls. Schools from "non-BCS" conferences are 2-1.
Coaches are grumbling.
"I really believe our conference is deserving of an automatic bid to the BCS," UNLV Coach Mike Sanford said. "I think that's something our conference should have."
Added Texas Christian Coach Gary Patterson: "Right now I think it's all about money, it's not about the best football that can be played. A lot of people would say out there, 'Nobody wants to watch somebody from the Mountain West play in a BCS game.' . . . [But] I think everybody likes the underdog."
The non-BCS commissioners signed off on the current structure because it was the best deal they could cut. And the next BCS contract probably will be more of the same.
The system is what it is.
"It's really frustrating," Thompson said.
Maybe the best way to force change would be for deserving teams to get left out.
"I would say it would give us a new argument," Thompson said. "I don't know if it would hasten the conversation."
A commissioner might ask: How many more 59-0 conversations does a conference have to have?
Blitz package
* Stat of the year so far: UCLA's 59-point margin of defeat against Brigham Young last week equals USC's combined margin of defeat in 14 losses under Pete Carroll.
* Southern conspiracy theory voting watch: Not much to sniff out this week. The two AP voters who had Georgia No. 1 are Scott Wolf of the L.A. Daily News and Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Wolf, who covers USC, has Georgia, followed by Florida and USC.
"No one knows who the best team in the country is right now," Wolf explained in a story he wrote for his paper this week. "The great thing about college football is you can debate this fact all season."
Wolf should have fun debating it around USC.
Fittipaldo's top three are Georgia, USC and Missouri.
Bill Cone of the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina voted Florida No. 1.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, has one of the state's three AP votes. He dropped his alma mater to No. 13 after the Buckeyes' 35-3 loss to USC.
