Here's what others are saying about the bowl alliance selections and BYU:
Miami Herald
Susan Miller Degnan
One Sunshine State rematch, one Salt Lake City shaft and one Cornhusker crew probably wondering if it should laugh or cry . . . .
Overlooked: the Western Athletic Conference's Brigham Young, which ended the season 13-1 and ranked fifth in both polls. BYU was the highest-ranked finalist eligible for one of two at-large alliance slots, in addition to the conference champions from the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big 12 and Big East . . . .
Reporters on a national conference call inundated bowl executives and Alliance coordinator Roy Kramer with questions about the BYU snubbing. Kramer said if the WAC was planning to sue, he knew nothing about it, and that the Alliance had stuck to its contract and followed the rules.
"The primary purpose of the Alliance was to put the two best teams together at the end of the year," Kramer said. "The Sugar Bowl has done that. Our second purpose was to slow down the selection process to allow the bowls to have better opportunities to fully evaluate all of the good football teams. By doing that, we've been able to bring a degree of order out of chaos - like we used to have."
When asked if he worried about a credibility problem for the Alliance, Kramer said, "Credibility is one game each year, after that we back out and let the other bowls decide what fits their needs and what fits their marketplace and criteria. After the top game, the integrity of the Alliance is held by the bowls."
Dallas Morning News
Cathy Harasta
The Western Athletic Conference and the Southeastern Conference championships later Saturday acquired new meaning after Texas ruined Nebraska's day. In the end, the three Alliance bowls had to settle for the truth: Three will not do the job of delivering justice.
Three's not a crowd. Three's not enough.
The process, fortunately, is open to evolution.
The Alliance knew going in that its most glaring flaw was the absence of the Rose Bowl, which matches the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions. With the Alliance's intent of providing a national championship settled on the field, the capacity for trouble lurked in the Rose Bowl's detachment. Undefeated Arizona State could steal the Alliance's thunder this time by emerging with the national title.
But that problem exits with the 1998 season, when the Rose Bowl joins forces with the Alliance to make a foursome. The most serious injustice this season, however, concerned the WAC.
Any cooperative that excludes the WAC is unconscionable. WAC champion BYU, at 13-1, fell out of Alliance at-large consideration because even at 10-2, Nebraska was more desirable to the Orange Bowl and Penn State (9-2) appealed to the Fiesta Bowl as a strong generator of TV ratings.
Texas did BYU no favor by bouncing the Cougars from the Alliance payday. But the Longhorns did tremendous favors for the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl and for the longterm bowl outlook.
By introducing Cinderella to college football's post-season, Texas demonstrated that the Alliance can't assume anything too soon when it comes to pairings. If you are a fan, any time spontaneity asserts itself in sports, you can't complain.
The Cotton Bowl, with a 13-1 team in No. 5 BYU and a Big 12 team in No. 14 Kansas State, certainly can't complain.
"We have two teams that have never been in a New Year's Day bowl," Cotton Bowl chairman W. Mike Baggett said.
Though the Cotton Bowl failed in its bid a few years ago for one of the three coveted spots in the Alliance, the fact that a 13-1 team was shut out of that trifecta proved that the Alliance has room for improvement.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Ray Parrillo
Top-ranked Florida State has a bowl-game opponent it doesn't want.
Penn State has to settle for an opponent that's been defeated four times and is ranked a mere No. 20 only after catching lightning in a bottle.
Two-time defending national champion Nebraska drew an opponent that will hardly stir the Cornhuskers' emotions.
And Brigham Young, which went 13-1 and is rated No. 5, is on the outside looking in, and seething.
Isn't the complicated, convoluted college football bowl alliance just grand? . . .
Penn State coach Joe Paterno said he believes Penn State was the "more logical pick" over BYU and some other at-large candidates such as Colorado and Tennessee. "But whether it was the best pick or the fairest pick, I'm not going to argue that."
In Provo, Utah, BYU athletic director Rondo Felberg didn't take the snub lightly.
"What do they (Penn State) bring that BYU doesn't?" he said. "We fill the stadium wherever we go, we've got a national constituency, we're a national championship team. It's not as if we haven't been there.
"At some point in time, college football is going to have to be run by people who care about college football instead of other things."
BYU finished No. 1 in 1984 but, because of its suspect schedule, has never received the kind of respect that national powers such as Penn State and Nebraska get. The Cougars played only two ranked teams this season. They lost to No. 13 Washington and defeated No. 22 Wyoming for the Western Athletic Conference championship on Saturday.
Dallas Morning News
Bart Hubbuch
Snubs, surprises and controversy.
They're a staple of every college football post-season, and all were plentiful Sunday during and after the announcement of this year's bowl lineup.
The biggest snub was felt by fifth-ranked Brigham Young, which despite a 13-1 record was bypassed for an at-large spot by the Bowl Alliance.
The biggest surprise was sprung by the Big 12 Conference, which struggled for much of its debut season but still landed two Alliance spots and the nearly $17 million combined payout that comes with them . . . .
"It was a pretty interesting day, but a truly great one for the Big 12," conference commissioner Steve Hatchell said . . . .
A truly great day, indeed - unless you were affiliated with BYU or the Western Athletic Conference.
Because the WAC isn't a member of the Alliance, the much-maligned league was forced to hope that public sentiment and BYU's ranking would be enough to sway bowl officials.
But citing No. 7 Penn State's national appeal and the throng of fans the Nittany Lions will bring to Tempe, Ariz., Fiesta officials made them the first team chosen by the Alliance after the Florida State-Florida rematch was set.
"When we considered all the factors, Penn Sate brought the most pluses to the table," Fiesta executive director John Junker said.
BYU and WAC officials reacted with disgust, but put off their much-discussed threat of legal action against the Alliance until after the upcoming bowl season.
"It's not the most deserving, it's who's the most attractive," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "We've certainly seen that today."
Benson, who called the BYU snub "an injustice," said the league now will press the NCAA to consider a playoff system and lobby the Alliance for an automatic berth beginning in 1997.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer, who is in charge of the Alliance, appeared unconcerned by the WAC's reaction and defended his group's selection method as legally sound.
"Once the best matchup is set, the other (Alliance bowls) have the right to make whatever selections they think will fill their stadiums and meet their television commitments," Kramer said.