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Cowen applauds BCS but wants more change
By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Tulane president
and BCS foe Scott Cowen is encouraged by the Bowl Championship Series' plans
to give all Division I-A conferences a shot at automatically qualifying for
a spot in college football's most lucrative games.
"I'm very pleased considering
that a year ago nobody thought we had a chance of this happening," Cowen
said Thursday. "I don't think it goes far enough. But it's a start."
Currently, only the Atlantic
Coast Conference, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern
Conference have automatic qualification in the four bowls (Fiesta, Orange,
Rose, Sugar) that make up the BCS. Notre Dame also has a guaranteed spot if
it finishes among the top teams in the BCS standings.
Under BCS guidelines, a
league's champions over a four-year period must have an average final
ranking in the BCS standings of 12 or better to keep its automatic
qualification with no questions asked. If the average falls below 12, the
league's automatic qualification comes under review.
Big East commissioner Mike
Tranghese said Tuesday that BCS officials want to change that system.
"What we're talking about now
is something more expansive," said Tranghese, the outgoing BCS coordinator.
"Something that will be applied to all the conferences."
Whatever change BCS officials
come up with wouldn't go into effect until the 2006 season, at the earliest.
Cowen, whose school plays in
Conference USA, first called for changes to the BCS a year ago.
He formed a coalition of the
presidents of 52 universities excluded from the BCS. He sees that as the
biggest reason the BCS is now looking at revamping its system.
"In the past, one or two
schools that did not belong to the organization tried to complain, but it
was hard on that basis to make a change," Cowen said. "This was the first
time an organized group with a plan tried it."
Eventually Cowen would like to
see even more drastic changes to the BCS.
"We should have a system where
everyone had the right to qualify and there are no automatic qualifiers,"
Cowen said. "At the very least every conference champion should be an
automatic qualifier."
Cowen acknowledges that step
will be harder.
"What it will take is for a
non-qualifier to play and win or be very competitive," he said.
The BCS has already taken
steps to give schools in the other five Division I-A conferences more access
to the big-ticket bowls by adding a fifth game. Starting in the 2006 season,
the BCS will include 10 teams instead of eight, doubling the wild-card spots
to four.
Copyright 2004
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:40:27 AM
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