If ever there was a football team or a league to empathize with the University of Toledo and the Mid-American Conference, it would have to be BYU and the Western Athletic Conference.
This week, Toledo is ranked No. 18 in the AP poll - several spots ahead of Big East Conference favorites Virginia Tech and Syracuse - and joins Ohio U. as a frontrunner for the MAC championship.But the eventual Big East champion will earn an $8 million New Year's bowl payout as a Bowl Alliance member. And the best Toledo can look forward to is a meager $750,000 at the new Motor City Bowl.
Sound familiar?
Despite a 13-1 record and No. 5 national ranking last year, BYU was passed over for an Alliance berth. Of the six spots in Alliance bowls, four go to champs of the Big 12, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East conferences, with two at-large berths.
After a certain amount of lobbying, the Alliance cracked its doors to the WAC, with a team qualifying if it has won at least eight games and is ranked in the Top 12 but no lower than the lowest-ranked champion from the four premier conferences.
But BYU - and any of its WAC peers - is a far cry from meeting such conditions.
The WAC would like to be in a position to support the MAC's - and its own - lobbying for Alliance consideration. But the WAC hasn't got a league to stand on this season.
It's early November, and no WAC teams are ranked in the Top 25 polls. Colorado State, with its 7-2 overall record and 5-1 conference mark, is as close to a dominating team as the WAC has to offer.
Often referred to as the "wacky WAC" for its high-octane offenses and points-a-rama scoring, the league might be better known as the "weird WAC" this season, especially after lowly San Jose State upset once-ranked Air Force, hapless Tulsa toppled once-proud Utah and annual cellar-dweller Texas-El Paso choked defending champion BYU.
And fortunes are no better outside of its own league. The WAC is 23-28 (.451) in regular-season nonconference games this season - mostly against lesser programs from even-weaker conferences - and just 1-9 against Top 25 nonconference foes. The sole victory came when BYU shocked then-No. 13 Arizona State 13-10 in mid-September.
Excluded from the current Alliance - and next year's Super Alliance, which brings in the Big Ten and Pac-10 champs - are the WAC, the MAC, the Big West and Conference USA, a fact which results in an ever-widening financial and competitive gap. Of the $104 million doled out from the bowls, $99 million ended up in the hands of just six conferences - the Atlantic Coast, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-10 and the Southeastern.
After being slighted by the Alliance last year, BYU was relegated to the Cotton Bowl. The Cougars may have welcomed their first New Year's Day appearance, but it was a costly alternative.
The Cotton Bowl paid about $2 million a team. The Bowl Alliance payouts - for the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls - all exceeded $8 million. The Cougars' snub not only cost BYU and its league valuable exposure and acclaim, it also meant about $400,000 less per team in the 16-member WAC.
So while the WAC divvied up its paltry $2.75 million in bowl revenues (BYU kept $968,000), the Big Ten raked in $24 million and the Big 12 $21 million. With the WAC's woes on the field and in the polls, the financial disparity is likely to persist.
The Cotton Bowl has first crack at the WAC and can choose between the league champion or the second-place finisher in the Pac-10. You can bet the WAC champ doesn't get a sniff if the Cotton Bowl can bring in a Top 25 team the caliber of Washington, UCLA, Washington State or Arizona State.
That means the WAC champ is Holiday Bowl-bound, which paid participants about $600,000 less than the Cotton Bowl last year.
Remember how Wyoming - ranked No. 22 last year and sporting a 10-2 record - was shut out of a bowl despite an overtime loss to BYU in the WAC title game? This year's WAC runner-up has a guaranteed spot in the Copper Bowl, provided it has one more Div. I win than any other WAC team and that it didn't participate in the Copper Bowl the previous year (last year's WAC selection was Utah). If those requirements aren't met, the Copper Bowl is free to select any WAC team.
The Las Vegas Bowl, which shed its Big West tie-in and upped its payout from $150,000 to $750,000, takes a third WAC team against an at-large opponent. Chances are two WAC teams wouldn't meet, but there is the chance of renewing a conference rivalry between two teams from opposite divisions.
Three other at-large bowl berths are available to the WAC - as well as to any other team. The Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., needs an opponent to meet the No. 5 team from the SEC; the inaugural Motor City Bowl in Auburn Hills, Mich., requires a team to take on the MAC champ; and the first-year Humanitarian Bowl in Boise has the Big West champ awaiting a foe.
But having WAC teams in the Copper and Las Vegas bowls, as well as any of the aforementioned three bowls with at-large berths, will be anything but a financial bonanza, since they offer little more than the NCAA-required $750,000 payout per team. That's half the amount that second-place teams from the ACC and Big East earn in the Gator Bowl and half the $1.5 million for third-place teams from the SEC and Big Ten in the Outback Bowl.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WAC-a-bowl
Bowls with WAC tie-ins Date, site Participants
Cotton Bowl Jan. 1, Dallas WAC champ or Pac-10
... ... No. 2 vs. Big 12 No. 2
Holiday Bowl Dec. 29, San Diego WAC champ or Pac-10
... ... No. 2 vs. Big 12 No. 3
Copper Bowl Dec. 27, Tucson, Ariz. WAC runner-up vs. Big 12
... ... No. 6
Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 20, Las Vegas WAC No. 3 vs. at-large
... ... opponent
Other bowls with at large berths
Independence Bowl Dec. 28, Shreveport, La. SEC No. 5 vs. at-large
... ... opponent
Motor City Bowl Dec. 26, Pontiac, Mich. Mid-American champ vs.
... ... at-large opponent
Humanitarian Bowl Dec. 29, Boise Big West champ vs.
... ... at-large opponent
Going bowling
-- The WAC champion is eligible for one of two at-large spots in the 1997 Alliance bowl scenario. Automatic spots go to the champions of the Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big East conferences. To be selected for an Alliance berth, the WAC champion must have a higher national ranking than other eligible teams (the remaining teams from the Alliance conferences and Notre Dame). All Alliance positions are based on national ranking.
-- If the WAC champion doesn't participate in an Alliance game, it then plays in either the Cotton or Holiday Bowls. The Cotton Bowl has its choice of the WAC champion or the second-place finisher in the Pacific-10, with the choice based upon overall record and national ranking. If the WAC team does not participate in the Cotton Bowl, it automatically plays in the Holiday Bowl. If the WAC champion does participate in an Alliance game, then the Cotton and Holiday bowls make the selection from the remaining WAC teams.
-- The Copper Bowl takes the runner-up from the WAC championship game, provided it has at least one more Division I-A victory than any other WAC team available and did not play in the Copper Bowl the previous year. If the runner-up does not fit these requirements, the Copper Bowl make pick any other WAC team.