You guys kind of already touched base on it, but if I'm not mistaken, the Rose bowl had no choice but to take Illinois. The Big 10 champ HAS to go to the Rose Bowl. Same with the Pac 10. Since Ohio State was selected to the MNC, the Rose Bowl had no choice but to stay within the Big 10. Had USC got the MNC bid, it would have been ASU in the Rose Bowl. To keep that going, had VT been picked to the MNC, you would have seen a 3 loss BC or Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, I hate the tie-ins, because it creates 3 loss teams that are able to make the BCS, and it discourages different conferences playing each other.
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