Last Edited: 11/29/2012 7:56:44 PM by Pataskala

Last Edited: 11/29/2012 8:16:58 PM by UpSan Bobcat

In August, the NCAA established a criteria for qualitifcation in case there aren't enough bowl qualifiers, including teams that "finished with a 6-7 record, with the seventh loss being in a conference championship game."

But there are 70 bowl-eligible teams this year, which means, in theory, a team such as 10-2 San Jose State could be left out of a bowl to make room for Georgia Tech. UConn and Pitt also could complicate matters should they qualify this week.

The NCAA could be setting a precedent to the smaller conferences that there are a different set of rules for the big boys.

"It's indefensible," said a high-ranking source from one of the five smaller conferences.

"I could not disagree more with the rationale provided," Steinbrecher said in a statement. "One of the reasons for the development of the policy covering this matter was to clearly create a selection order to manage just this situation.

"These selection orders were developed with NCAA staff input and approved unanimously by the NCAA Board of Directors last July. To suggest that the NCAA staff or task force working on bowl policy did not contemplate such a circumstance, when this same situation occurred last year, is incorrect. The policy is clear and understandable.

"What is lacking is the willingness to enforce NCAA policy and that is regrettable. All the Mid-American Conference asks is that the rules that have been approved by the member institutions of the NCAA be enforced. That did not occur in this instance."