alternatehistory.com
2010-11
2010-11
ACC - Virginia Tech stated 0-2 with losses to Boise St and, very embarrassingly, to James Madison. But they rallied to win 11 straight, including 8-0 ACC record a win over Florida St in the conference title game.
Big East – Uconn (7-5) lost in OT to South Florida (8-4) the last week of the season, throwing the conference title to West Virginia (9-3) who won via head to head tie breaker with Pittsburgh (7-5).
Big Ten – Ohio St (11-1), Wisconsin (11-1), and Michigan St (11-1) finished in a 3-way tie for the conference, all at 7-1. Wisconsin was given the Rose Bowl birth however as they were ranked 1 spot higher in the BCS than Ohio St.
Big 12 – In a season of turmoil off the field for the conference, the on field product managed to match it. Texas had quite the hangover after winning the title, failing to develop a QB to take over for McCoy and finished the season 5-7. Just like 2008, the south division finished in a 3 way tie - OU (10-2), OSU (10-2), Texas A+M (9-3)- and once again Oklahoma benefited from the BCS tie breaker and was selected to face Nebraska (10-2) in the title game, who they beat.
PAC 10 – The conference featured 2 very good and different teams, Oregon finished the regular season undefeated and ranked number 1 in the polls, behind Chip Kelly's perfection of the high speed spread option and star running back LaMichael James. Stanford, playing smashmouth pro-style, finished with just 1-loss, to Oregon, with star QB Andrew Luck, who finished a close 2nd in the Heisman to Mississippi St's Cam Newton.
SEC – Star transfer and Heisman winner Cam Newton and Mississippi St. (10-2) stole the show and the highlights, but LSU (11-1) took the loaded SEC West division, which also saw Alabama and Arkansas ranked, and then defeated surprise East winner South Carolina for the SEC title.
Other – TCU won the Mountain West and finished undefeated and ranked #2 in the country, securing the non-AQ spot in the BCS bowls. In the WAC Boise was also posed to run the table, but a loss in the last week due to kicking woes and star QB Colin Kaepernick to Nevada, somewhat controversially, saw them out of the BCS.
BCS BOWLS
autobid teams in italics
Rose Bowl: (1) Oregon over (4) Wisconsin 27-17
Cotton Bowl: (2) TCU over (16) West Virginia 34-10
Fiesta Bowl: (3) Stanford over (7) Oklahoma 34-27
Sugar Bowl: (6) Ohio St over (5) LSU 24-21
Orange Bowl: (8) Mississippi St. over (12) Virginia Tech - 27-20
LSU's and Wisconsin's losses made it a fairly simply question for the after the bowls poll. Who's #2, TCU or Stanford? Stanford believed they had the better case, a (greatly they would say) tougher schedule than TCU, a much better score against common opponent Oregon St 38-0 to TCU's 31-20 and their only loss was to the #1 ranked team in the country, whereas TCU's toughest opponent had probably been West Virginia (in a quasi home game for TCU at Cowboys Stadium) which after the bowl loss fished ranked 24th. But voters stuck with TCU at #2, and TCU would get to play their third game of the season at Cowboy's Stadium against Oregon for the national title.
But despite a brave effort from QB Andy Dalton and the stingy TCU defense, Oregon Heisman finalist LaMichael James hit a couple long runs in the 4th quarter and Oregon won the title, 33 to 27.
Realignment
The games on the field did nothing to slow down realignment speculation. In September the Big 12 held a meeting to finalize buyout terms by Nebraska and Colorado. Schools such as Kansas St and Baylor pushed for a high fee, hoping that it would help to stabilize the conference. But push-back from A+M, Missouri, and Oklahoma lead to the schools walking with a lower than expected $4 million dollar exit fee. A deal to rework how TV money failed at the meeting also, and just a week later Texas and ESPN came to terms on the Longhorn Network. That was the last straw for Texas A+M who publicly announced they were applying to join the SEC (catching the SEC somewhat off-guard). And although no public announcement was made, it soon became clear from various leaks that Missouri and Oklahoma were seeking to leave the conference, as was probably every Big 12 school save Texas who thought another major conference might take them.
In October SEC Commissioner Slive announced that he expected the SEC to invite Texas A+M (getting a foothold in Texas was a chance too good to pass on), and that the conference was searching for a 14th team in order to balance their divisions. A large number of schools were immediately rumored to be looking to join the SEC, it was probably even true about many of the schools.
This caused BIG commish Jim Delaney to be concerned that SEC could take schools from the ACC that he wanted to add. It soon leaked that Delaney was working on convincing the BIG presidents on adding Maryland and Virginia to the conference. This could get their network on basic cable in the large markets of D.C (7), Baltimore (20), Hampton Roads (36) , and Richmond (45). This may have been what lead David Boren to state in an interview that “the Big 10 was probably Oklahoma's top choice at this point,” so as to try to put pressure on the BIG for an invite (the relationship with Texas was burnt, the PAC had waffled on them without Texas, and the school thought it self too good academically for the SEC).
In December the SEC announced that they would be adding Texas A+M and Virginia Tech. Then the BIG two-upped them by adding Maryland, Virginia, Oklahoma (the lone non AAU school in the group but too good of a football program to pass on), and Missouri. The SEC suddenly found itself with a desire to also have 16 schools to match the BIG. North Carolina was a prime target but hesitated on leaving Tobacco Road. So the SEC violated the gentlemen's agreement and accepted Florida St (which if not a new state for the conference, had a national brand, and 2 schools in Florida is far from the worst thing), and unlike the BIG taking at least a very minor amount of care to consider future divisional alignments, looked west to add another school, decided on taking Kansas.
Notes: So here we have butterflies kicking in a little. Obviously Newton decided to transfer to Miss St, which was on his short list, instead of Auburn. And more than 1 game a year are going different ways. The SEC is not quite the juggernaut it was OTL due to not having it's title run. Mt. West TCU over Stanford (and a few others for that matter) is a decision the playoff committee would never make (thought the Mt. West was getting a fair amount of respect at the time), and this plus one system actually represents the best chance (though not a good one) for non-major conference schools to play for the title that has been used ITTL or OTL.
The BIG and PAC have conference networks, and the SEC is planning on having one, which is why they are going for markets / national draws aggressively (and they also have the money to make it happen), though the PAC ran out of good options when Texas rejected them and they didn't try other Big 12 options passed getting to 12 for a title game. The Big East and ACC do not / aren't planning on networks and with their guaranteed BCS spots have no need to reload with schools just to get to a certain number, it's not worth it for them to expand unless they get a great school to commit.
It's unclear if the gentlemen's agreement (a pact between Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and possibly Kentucky to keep others schools in their states from joining the SEC) was an actual thing or just rumor, in the case it was a thing it's easy to see South Carolina and Georgia betraying Florida so that the last spot was Florida St and not Clemson or Georgia Tech.
ACC - Virginia Tech stated 0-2 with losses to Boise St and, very embarrassingly, to James Madison. But they rallied to win 11 straight, including 8-0 ACC record a win over Florida St in the conference title game.
Big East – Uconn (7-5) lost in OT to South Florida (8-4) the last week of the season, throwing the conference title to West Virginia (9-3) who won via head to head tie breaker with Pittsburgh (7-5).
Big Ten – Ohio St (11-1), Wisconsin (11-1), and Michigan St (11-1) finished in a 3-way tie for the conference, all at 7-1. Wisconsin was given the Rose Bowl birth however as they were ranked 1 spot higher in the BCS than Ohio St.
Big 12 – In a season of turmoil off the field for the conference, the on field product managed to match it. Texas had quite the hangover after winning the title, failing to develop a QB to take over for McCoy and finished the season 5-7. Just like 2008, the south division finished in a 3 way tie - OU (10-2), OSU (10-2), Texas A+M (9-3)- and once again Oklahoma benefited from the BCS tie breaker and was selected to face Nebraska (10-2) in the title game, who they beat.
PAC 10 – The conference featured 2 very good and different teams, Oregon finished the regular season undefeated and ranked number 1 in the polls, behind Chip Kelly's perfection of the high speed spread option and star running back LaMichael James. Stanford, playing smashmouth pro-style, finished with just 1-loss, to Oregon, with star QB Andrew Luck, who finished a close 2nd in the Heisman to Mississippi St's Cam Newton.
SEC – Star transfer and Heisman winner Cam Newton and Mississippi St. (10-2) stole the show and the highlights, but LSU (11-1) took the loaded SEC West division, which also saw Alabama and Arkansas ranked, and then defeated surprise East winner South Carolina for the SEC title.
Other – TCU won the Mountain West and finished undefeated and ranked #2 in the country, securing the non-AQ spot in the BCS bowls. In the WAC Boise was also posed to run the table, but a loss in the last week due to kicking woes and star QB Colin Kaepernick to Nevada, somewhat controversially, saw them out of the BCS.
BCS BOWLS
autobid teams in italics
Rose Bowl: (1) Oregon over (4) Wisconsin 27-17
Cotton Bowl: (2) TCU over (16) West Virginia 34-10
Fiesta Bowl: (3) Stanford over (7) Oklahoma 34-27
Sugar Bowl: (6) Ohio St over (5) LSU 24-21
Orange Bowl: (8) Mississippi St. over (12) Virginia Tech - 27-20
LSU's and Wisconsin's losses made it a fairly simply question for the after the bowls poll. Who's #2, TCU or Stanford? Stanford believed they had the better case, a (greatly they would say) tougher schedule than TCU, a much better score against common opponent Oregon St 38-0 to TCU's 31-20 and their only loss was to the #1 ranked team in the country, whereas TCU's toughest opponent had probably been West Virginia (in a quasi home game for TCU at Cowboys Stadium) which after the bowl loss fished ranked 24th. But voters stuck with TCU at #2, and TCU would get to play their third game of the season at Cowboy's Stadium against Oregon for the national title.
But despite a brave effort from QB Andy Dalton and the stingy TCU defense, Oregon Heisman finalist LaMichael James hit a couple long runs in the 4th quarter and Oregon won the title, 33 to 27.
Realignment
The games on the field did nothing to slow down realignment speculation. In September the Big 12 held a meeting to finalize buyout terms by Nebraska and Colorado. Schools such as Kansas St and Baylor pushed for a high fee, hoping that it would help to stabilize the conference. But push-back from A+M, Missouri, and Oklahoma lead to the schools walking with a lower than expected $4 million dollar exit fee. A deal to rework how TV money failed at the meeting also, and just a week later Texas and ESPN came to terms on the Longhorn Network. That was the last straw for Texas A+M who publicly announced they were applying to join the SEC (catching the SEC somewhat off-guard). And although no public announcement was made, it soon became clear from various leaks that Missouri and Oklahoma were seeking to leave the conference, as was probably every Big 12 school save Texas who thought another major conference might take them.
In October SEC Commissioner Slive announced that he expected the SEC to invite Texas A+M (getting a foothold in Texas was a chance too good to pass on), and that the conference was searching for a 14th team in order to balance their divisions. A large number of schools were immediately rumored to be looking to join the SEC, it was probably even true about many of the schools.
This caused BIG commish Jim Delaney to be concerned that SEC could take schools from the ACC that he wanted to add. It soon leaked that Delaney was working on convincing the BIG presidents on adding Maryland and Virginia to the conference. This could get their network on basic cable in the large markets of D.C (7), Baltimore (20), Hampton Roads (36) , and Richmond (45). This may have been what lead David Boren to state in an interview that “the Big 10 was probably Oklahoma's top choice at this point,” so as to try to put pressure on the BIG for an invite (the relationship with Texas was burnt, the PAC had waffled on them without Texas, and the school thought it self too good academically for the SEC).
In December the SEC announced that they would be adding Texas A+M and Virginia Tech. Then the BIG two-upped them by adding Maryland, Virginia, Oklahoma (the lone non AAU school in the group but too good of a football program to pass on), and Missouri. The SEC suddenly found itself with a desire to also have 16 schools to match the BIG. North Carolina was a prime target but hesitated on leaving Tobacco Road. So the SEC violated the gentlemen's agreement and accepted Florida St (which if not a new state for the conference, had a national brand, and 2 schools in Florida is far from the worst thing), and unlike the BIG taking at least a very minor amount of care to consider future divisional alignments, looked west to add another school, decided on taking Kansas.
Notes: So here we have butterflies kicking in a little. Obviously Newton decided to transfer to Miss St, which was on his short list, instead of Auburn. And more than 1 game a year are going different ways. The SEC is not quite the juggernaut it was OTL due to not having it's title run. Mt. West TCU over Stanford (and a few others for that matter) is a decision the playoff committee would never make (thought the Mt. West was getting a fair amount of respect at the time), and this plus one system actually represents the best chance (though not a good one) for non-major conference schools to play for the title that has been used ITTL or OTL.
The BIG and PAC have conference networks, and the SEC is planning on having one, which is why they are going for markets / national draws aggressively (and they also have the money to make it happen), though the PAC ran out of good options when Texas rejected them and they didn't try other Big 12 options passed getting to 12 for a title game. The Big East and ACC do not / aren't planning on networks and with their guaranteed BCS spots have no need to reload with schools just to get to a certain number, it's not worth it for them to expand unless they get a great school to commit.
It's unclear if the gentlemen's agreement (a pact between Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and possibly Kentucky to keep others schools in their states from joining the SEC) was an actual thing or just rumor, in the case it was a thing it's easy to see South Carolina and Georgia betraying Florida so that the last spot was Florida St and not Clemson or Georgia Tech.
- Jasen777
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