Boise State could slam door on Big Ten's Rose Bowl parade, plus bowl matchups

A couple of doom-and-gloom scenarios could be upon us during this year's bowl season. One, a record 70 of the 119 Division I (FBS) schools will participate in the bowls this year. It's possible a bowl may need to ask the NCAA for permission to add a school with a losing record.

But even more damning for the Big Ten this year is it may not get a representative in the Rose Bowl. Should Ohio State/Iowa/Wisconsin win out and advance to the BCS Championship Game, the best non-automatic qualifier will take the Big Ten's Rose Bowl slot. Here's the BCS rule:

For the games of January 2011 through 2014, the first year the Rose Bowl loses a team to the national championship game and a team from the non-automatic qualifier group is an automatic qualifier, that non-automatic qualifier team will play in the Rose Bowl.

Translated, this means if Boise State runs the table again and doesn't earn a spot in the BCS title game, and, say, Ohio State does, that could leave Iowa or Wisconsin in the at-large pool. It's likely the Big Ten's runner-up still will earn a BCS at-large berth, but it won't be at the Rose Bowl.

Although it is way, way too early for predictions, it's right on time for BCS projections. Here's how the five BCS games could shake out, especially with the Rose Bowl taking a non-automatic qualifier:

• BCS Championship -- Ohio State vs. Alabama
• Rose Bowl -- USC vs. Boise State
• Sugar Bowl -- Florida vs. Iowa
• Fiesta Bowl -- Texas vs. Pittsburgh
• Orange Bowl -- Virginia Tech vs. Nebraska

Based on this assessment, the Rose and Sugar bowls lose their champions. The Rose Bowl gets stuck with Boise State (non-automatic qualifier). The Sugar Bowl then replaces Alabama with Florida. The rotation this year goes Sugar-Orange-Fiesta. The Sugar can't lose with either Iowa or Nebraska, so it picks the Hawkeyes over the Cornhuskers to help out the Orange Bowl. Or, Boise State could just lose to Virginia Tech or Oregon State and make the Rose Bowl scenario pretty much irrelevant this year.

BOWLED OVER

The NCAA certified 35 bowl games this year, adding two -- the New Era Pinstripe Bowl (Yankee Stadium) and the Dallas Football Classic (Cotton Bowl) -- while the International Bowl in Toronto folded. The NCAA also denied licenses to the Christmas Bowl in Los Angeles and the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

I like the idea of a Christmas Day bowl, no matter where it is. There's a hole in television programming that afternoon and when you're with the family, a live college football game at 2 p.m. could take the place of the 10th hour of "A Christmas Story." For many bowls, the players already have traveled to their bowl locations, so I'd assume they'd rather play than practice that day.

Five different bowls haven't set dates for their games this year -- Sun, Champs, Little Caesar's, EagleBank and Independence. I'm sure one of them would thrill somebody with a mid-afternoon Christmas Day game.

Here's a list of all the 2010-2011 bowl games, which took way too long to accumulate (this, my friends, was not a copy-and-paste job). Currently, there are 13 bowls played Jan. 1, 2011 or later. Notice the Cotton Bowl now is played Jan. 7, while the BCS Championship inches closer to February all the time.

• Jan. 10, 2011 -- BCS Championship at Glendale, Ariz. -- BCS 1 vs. BCS 2
• Jan. 9, 2011 -- Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (formerly Emerald Bowl) -- Pac-10 No. 6 vs. WAC
• Jan. 8, 2011 -- Papajohns Bowl -- SEC No. 9 vs. Big East No. 5/6
• Jan. 7, 2011 -- AT&T Cotton Bowl -- Big 12 No. 2 vs. SEC No. 3/4/5
• Jan. 6, 2011 -- GMAC Bowl -- MAC No. 1/2 vs. Sun Belt No. 2
• Jan. 4, 2011 -- Sugar Bowl -- SEC No. 1 vs. BCS at-large
• Jan. 3, 2011 -- Orange Bowl -- ACC No. 1 vs. BCS at-large
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Fiesta Bowl -- Big 12 No. 1 vs. BCS at-large
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Rose Bowl -- Big Ten No. 1 vs. Pac-10 No. 1
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Capital One Bowl -- Big Ten No. 2 vs. SEC No. 2
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Outback Bowl -- Big Ten No. 3 vs. SEC No. 3/4/5
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Gator Bowl -- Big Ten No. 4/5 vs. SEC No. 5/6
• Jan. 1, 2011 -- Dallas Football Classic -- Big Ten No. 7 vs. Big 12 No. 8
• Dec. 31, 2010 -- Chik-fil-A -- ACC No. 2 vs. SEC No. 3/4/5
• Dec. 31, 2010 -- Insight Bowl -- Big Ten No. 4/5 vs. Big 12 No. 4
• Dec. 31, 2010 -- Meineke Car Care Bowl -- Big East No. vs. ACC No. 5
• Dec. 31, 2010 -- Texas Bowl -- Big Ten No. 6 vs. Big 12 No. 6
• Dec. 31, 2010 -- Liberty Bowl -- Conference USA No. 1 vs. Big East 5 or SEC
• Dec. 30, 2010 -- Holiday Bowl -- Pac-10 No. 3 vs. Big 12 No. 5
• Dec. 30, 2010 -- Armed Forces Bowl -- Mountain West vs. Conference USA
• Dec. 30, 2010 -- New Era Pinstripe Bowl (Bronx) -- Big 12 No. 7 vs. Big East No. 4
• Dec. 30, 2010 -- Humanitarian Bowl -- WAC vs. MAC
• Dec. 30, 2010 -- Music City Bowl -- ACC No. 6 vs. SEC
• Dec. 29, 2010 -- Alamo Bowl -- Pac-10 No. 2 vs. Big 12 No. 3
• Dec. 24, 2010 -- Hawaii Bowl -- Conference USA vs. WAC
• Dec. 23, 2010 -- Poinsettia Bowl -- Mountain West No. 2 vs. Navy or WAC
• Dec. 22, 2010 -- Las Vegas Bowl -- Mountain West No. 1 vs. Pac-10 No. 5
• Dec. 21, 2010 -- Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl (St. Petersburg) -- Big East No. 6 vs. Conference USA
• Dec. 18, 2010 -- New Mexico Bowl -- Mountain West vs. WAC
• Dec. 18, 2010 -- New Orleans Bowl -- Sun Belt No. 1 vs. Conference USA
• TBA -- Sun Bowl -- Pac-10 No. 4 vs. ACC No. 4
• TBA -- Champs Sports Bowl -- Big East No. 2 vs. ACC No. 3
• TBA -- Independence Bowl -- Mountain West No. 3 vs. ACC No. 7
• TBA -- Little Caesar's Bowl -- MAC No. 1 or 2 vs. Big Ten No. 8 or Sun Belt
• TBA -- EagleBank Bowl -- ACC No. 8 vs. Big East No. 2