Looks like I'm wrong I thought they did the Nebraska rule thing.
LINCOLN - You still don't have to win your conference to play in college football's Bowl Championship Series title game.
The six league commissioners who run the BCS declined to create a "Nebraska rule," which was considered after the Huskers received a spot in the Rose Bowl last season despite losing to Colorado 62-36 and failing to reach the Big 12 title game.
BCS Coordinator Mike Tranghese, commissioner of the Big East, said Tuesday the idea of a rule requiring a BCS title game participant to be a conference champion "didn't get very far."
A big reason, Tranghese said, was to avoid penalizing a team that might go 11-1 and finish second nationally, but which has a loss that keeps it out of its league title game.
Nebraska Football Coach Frank Solich said he was pleased no such rule was passed.
"Look at pro football. The wild card team can win the Super Bowl," he said. "Look at college basketball. Teams that don't win their conference can win the national championship.
"Those things point to me that it doesn't have to be that way in college football, either."
But whatever the BCS rules are, Solich is willing to let the system run its course.
"Apparently," he said, "not everybody is like that."
Colorado Coach Gary Barnett, who sparred with Solich on this topic last December, was on a fishing trip Tuesday.
According to CU Sports Information Director Dave Plati, Barnett's comment about possible BCS changes before he left was, "Just tell us what the rules are, and we'll play by them."
From the questions Tranghese got on a national teleconference revealing some minor BCS changes for next season, the highest-interest items involved what the commissioners declined to do.
Besides saying no to a conference champion's clause, they voted no on creating a human oversight committee. Both of those elements gained momentum in response to Nebraska being picked over Oregon or Colorado for the Rose Bowl title matchup against Miami.
NU, despite not reaching the Big 12 title game, was still No. 2 in the final BCS rankings ahead of No. 3 Colorado and No. 4 Oregon. The Huskers then lost 37-14 to Miami, prompting speculation that a better matchup had been missed.
The idea of an oversight committee produced heavy interest, Tranghese said.
"We talked about it on three occasions at great length," he said. "There was genuine interest in introducing a human element by some, but not by all.
"If we're going to make a change, there is going to have to be a consensus."
The biggest concern about the oversight committee, Tranghese said, is the power it would have to determine which two teams would play for the national title. By comparison, members of the NCAA basketball committee select and pair 65 teams.
"People thought the stakes were too high to entrust that in the hands of a few individuals," Tranghese said. "And even the people who wanted to consider a human element couldn't agree how the human element would be used."
Solich said he doesn't favor a human committee.
"I never have been for it," he said. "That certainly isn't an errorproof system, either."
Some change is coming to the BCS system, which is entering its fifth year and by contract will continue through the 2005 season.
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