Apparently, in the context of the Mountain West applying for an exemption to be granted to allow it to become a BCS AQ conference for the next two seasons, this was written without any irony or sarcasm:
… Despite the teams defections of Utah, BYU, TCU, Boise State and San Diego State to other conferences by the start 2013-14 academic year, the Mountain West has a pretty compelling case it qualified for an automatic bid.
If by that you mean “compelling” in the sense of watching a four-car collision unfold on an icy road, well, yeah, maybe.
I can’t wait to hear Jim Delany’s reaction to the request.
Get The Picture 
Emerson will be the spokesman for Delany on the matter
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illucid idiocy
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Senator, has anyone done an analysis of how well non AQ schools have done in BCS games? I would think those statistics might tell a different story. Yeah, you get a Utah to beat Alabama every once in awhile.. but then you have a Hawaii play a UGA… I’d be curious to see how they fared statistically and if that makes a case for or against their inclusion based on competitive merit… I’m going to take a guess and say it doesn’t.
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Boise State’s done okay. TCU won last year.
I suspect that the results are better than you think.
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I see..well, with most (all?) of the schools that have moved up, are there any left in those conferences that are worthy of the level of competition? I’m thinking it’s going to widen the gap.
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There, I think you’re spot on.
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I don’t think it’s necessarily a question of quality. There are some high quality non-AQ teams. It’s just a question of interest. Boise State sells about the same number of regular season tickets as Vanderbilt. And they had to paint their field blue in order to generate TV interest.
Why should the BCS let teams like that in when they bring nothing to the party?
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Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a 12-pac and a psychodelic painted field could liven up Down Trodden St vs So Are U after the regular season is over. Plus a really good joint wouldn’t hurt.
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I guess I was speaking to the whole argument that if you’re looking for the best teams to play each other, these schools really need the AQ status to get there, because they can’t put butts in the seats. If they can win the argument that they can compete with the big boys, then they can use that to appeal to those that want to see this thing play out on the field and not in the rankings.
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We just need to do away with the AQ status thing altogether. Let the market decide.
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“….the Mountain West has a pretty compelling case it qualified for an automatic bid.” Ok. I’ll bid $10.00.
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