Big 12 vs SEC

If Penn State does get into the BCS title game (avoiding this), and there is an impressive SEC or Big 12 champ that wins their bowl game against a good opponent and finishes with 1 loss but does not get into the title game, we could be looking at an AP champ that is distinct from the BCS champ (a 1 loss USC team might also be an option in this, but not very likely given their low schedule strength and they don't have a conf championship game, but they may play the role of being the team that a potential AP-only champ beats in their bowl game--except that they will get a rematch with Ohio State because the Rose Bowl and BCS are lame, and the BCS does not want a really high profile matchup whose winner might challenge the legitimacy of their BCS champion). This last happened (split champions), of course, to USC and LSU in '03. Recently, but before the current BCS setup, Washington and Miami shared in '91 and Michigan and Nebraska shared in '97. The good thing, for whatever teams could be involved in such a scenario, is that no ones seems to begrudge the accomplishments of co-champions. The bad thing about this scenario, for 8 and 16-team playoff advocates, is that it makes everyone think a plus-1 formula will make everything better--still, anything that questions the legitimacy of the current system, any confusion or controversy, and any move towards playoffs, even a 4-team version, means progress. It will not happen all at once anyway.