ESPN550.com
In a lot of ways, this Saturday's regular-season finale against Cincinnati is a de facto bowl game for the University of Hawaii football team.
The Bearcats will roll into Aloha Stadium with a No. 13 national ranking, a 10-2 record and -- as the champion of the Big East conference – are assured of the first BCS post-season berth in school history.
On a related note, Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly, who has attracted a lot of attention for various vacancies, earlier this week declared that he's not going anywhere.
Kelly had already become a hot coaching prospect after turning Central Michigan into a contender during a three-year run at that MAC school after having guided Grand Valley State to a pair of back-to-back Division-II national titles.
Cincinnati finished with 10 wins and a No. 17 national ranking in his first year last season and has lifted the football program to unprecedented heights this year.
But all of that said: Who will UH play in the hometown Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24th?
The Hawaii Bowl has a tie-in with the Pac-10 for that conference's sixth choice. But only five Pac-10 teams are currently eligible. If Arizona State beats Arizona this week, the Sun Devils will earn a trip to Hawaii.
If not, organizers of the event will have to do some scrambling to attract an attractive opponent. Not many of those exist. A team from the MAC, or Conference USA, or the Sun Belt isn't likely to excite many local fans.
But Notre Dame, even with a mediocre 6-6 record, would. Just a little something to think about … and hope for.
LITTLE GUYS: There's more to the BCS than just determining which two teams will meet in the national championship game. There are four more big-time bowls – the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta – that sort of use the BCS system to determine their pairings.
If – and only if – a team from a second-tier conference happens to go unbeaten and finish in the Top 12 of the BCS rankings, will it get a whiff of the glory and money from one of those major bowl games.
That's how Utah, Boise State and, most recently, Hawaii ended up in a major bowl game.
The picture, however, has been complicated this year as four of the nation's Top 12 teams, according to the BCS rankings, come from second-tier conferences.
But the BCS largesse goes only so far. Only one of those unbeaten schools will get a chance to eat the at the BCS table reserved for the big boys from the major conferences.
That distinction will belong to No. 6 Utah of the Mountain West.
The other two -- No. 9 Boise State of the WAC and No. 12 Ball State of the MAC – will have to settle for eating at the kiddie table.
Boise State will play either in its hometown Humanitarian Bowl or against No. 11 TCU of the Mountain West in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.
No. 12 Ball State, which still has to play Buffalo for the Mid-America title on Friday, will probably end up playing in either the Motor City Bowl or the GMAC Bowl.
There had been talk of matching up Boise State and Ball State, but the Cardinals didn't want to concede the home field advantage to the Broncos.
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