BCS. BCS. BCS. It just keeps ringing through my mind as I try to find a way for the NIU football team to be playing a bowl game after Dec. 31 this season.

Despite the dream start and potential for a dream finish, college football has set up an intricate system to make sure certain schools never make it all the way.

Unfortunately for NIU fans, the Huskies are on the list of have-nots and never-will-be’s for a BCS bowl. That leaves us with a probable Dec. 18 Motor City Bowl appearance.

What a way to reward the potentially only undefeated team in the country who attempted to take on the giants of college football.

While in sports like baseball, basketball and volleyball, the NCAA goes out of its way to make sure every team has a chance to be represented, college football remains afraid of the scenario.

It is for this reason that you can expect to see Alabama and Maryland playing in more prominent bowl games at more prominent times and against more prominent schools this year.

NIU still does have a chance at making a BCS bowl game this season. It would just take a few minor incidents in order for us to find our way in.

1. We win out the rest of our games.

2. Alabama and Maryland win out the rest of the season and find ways of winning their respective conferences.

3. Every other major school in the country loses twice.

If those three situations occur, we may then force our way into the picture as one of the two at-large selections for the eight BCS spots.

Unfortunately then, we still have to be selected by the respective bowls in order to play. Do you honestly think the Fiesta Bowl is going to want to put us in their several-million dollar bowl game – or Nebraska?

So, I suppose you really need a fourth situation to occur in order for us to be playing in January 2004:

4. A huge media outcry tricks one of the bowls into letting us play.

The good news is that we still have a chance if all four of those situations occur. The bad news is that it isn’t going to happen.

For those who believe all of this is just nonsense, look no further than 1998. Tulane finished the season 12-0 from Conference USA, who, up until this year, was considered a better conference than the MAC.

Tulane won each of their games by an average of over 20 points per game, but finished just 11th in the BCS standing and beat up on BYU in the non-BCS Liberty Bowl.

So, tuck that away as you root for us to win out this season. It doesn’t mean anything, and it won’t at least until 2005 when the current BCS contract runs out. Until then, maybe you can sit at home like me and try to find other wacky scenarios of how we can force our way into a major bowl game.