(07-29-2014 02:51 PM)PiratePanther189 Wrote: Quo. Quit bouncing to multiple threads and saying this. You know for a FACT that the entire country was up in arms about the fact that the Big East collapsed but that the contract stated that the conference still had their AQ spot. Everyone wanted the BCS to find a way to make it another At-Large spot (which UCF would've inevitably gotten anyway because of their record/rank/SOS).
You know you're wrong, you know you don't believe that the AAC or UCF were looked at as "Big Boys" last year.
You're an ECU fan with no experience in the Big East, so you can be forgiven for not understanding that the disparagement UCF received for getting a BCS bowl bid was absolutely nothing unusual: It was simply par-for-the-course for this conference, as the Big East's AQ status was ALWAYS disparaged for the past nine years, once Miami left the conference.
Also, there is no way that UCF would have gotten an at-large BCS bid last year. If that slot had been open, Oregon, ranked #10 in the final BCS standings, a much bigger name that played a much tougher schedule, and five spots ahead of UCF, would surely have gotten in instead of UCF had we not had our AQ status.
See how little "perception" mattered? Tons of people, fans and media, thought UCF didn't belong in a BCS bowl, but because it was in the contract, they got in anyway, even while a major power from another conference ranked much higher had to go to the Alamo Bowl instead. That's what it means to be a Big Boy, and that's what we were.
But not anymore. Now is when we find out if we can really compete without those advantages.