Kansas State will take on Arkansas on Friday night in what is certainly the most prestigious non-BCS bowl game -- the Cotton Bowl. In fact, Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino believes the Cotton Bowl will wind up being added to the BCS series. Still, none of that changes the fact that Kansas State deserved to go to a BCS bowl game this year, and not the Cotton Bowl.
Two of the BCS games were excellent match ups, with no scruples to be held of either. Those two games, obviously, were the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. All four teams involved in those games were every bit deserving of the right to play in those games.
The same still cannot be said for the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl.
The Sugar Bowl had a choice of not one but two at-large teams, and chose Michigan and Virginia Tech -- presumably, because their fanbase will travel well. Certainly, neither school was selected based on merit, as Kansas State had a better body of work than either team.
Still, the decision by the Sugar Bowl selection committee probably didn't turn out the way they wanted it to, as attendance for the Sugar Bowl was down nearly 10,000 from 2011.
The Orange Bowl, meanwhile, turned into a complete joke, as Clemson, who earned an automatic BCS qualifying bid by defeating Virginia Tech in the ACC title game, was dismantled by the Big East's automatic qualifier, West Virginia, 70-33.
While both West Virginia and Clemson clinched their BCS spots instead of being selected, it's clear that the ACC simply had no business sending two teams to BCS bowls while the Big 12 sent only one -- Oklahoma State, who won the Fiesta Bowl.
If this year doesn't prove that the system is certainly broken, then nothing will. Kansas State certainly deserved to go to a BCS bowl this year. The Big 12 certainly deserved to send two teams to BCS games this year. Neither happened this year.
Instead, K-State will take the field in a game that is certainly a better match up on paper than either the Orange or Sugar Bowl. Perhaps this is the game and the year that will help facilitate revamping the BCS system, but I'm not holding my breath.
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