Right around Thanksgiving, expect to hear the debate – the same debate fans have every year – about how many problems there are with the Bowl Championship Series and how a college football playoff system is the answer.

The same reasons are always argued over. College football needs to crown a legitimate No. 1 team, it can generate more revenue, it’s more exciting for fans, etc.

This year, throw one more into the mix: Syracuse expects to reach a BCS bowl.

Yes, Syracuse. The same team that finished 6-6 last year, that lost to Rutgers and lost two of its top players (wide receiver Johnnie Morant and linebacker Rich Scanlon). Yep, it wants a BCS bowl. It expects a BCS bowl.

‘It’s very realistic,’ safety Anthony Smith said. ‘There are some great teams in the Big East, but we want to win it.’

That’s the goal. It has been tacked up on the locker room board since the spring: Win the Big East. Such a goal sounds more like it’s actually mocking the team rather than inspiring it, considering Syracuse has been forgotten and laughed out of the national spotlight in two quick years. Losses to Temple and Rutgers in successive years will do that to you. Allowing a nation’s-worst 303.8 passing yards a game (which SU did in 2002) will, too.

But the Big East As We Knew It is gone. Miami and Virginia Tech, the two carpetbaggers who bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference, left behind a feeble league.

And yet, winning the Big Weak would propel Syracuse to the Fiesta Bowl.

This is within the realm of possibility. Worse yet, Syracuse can realistically finish 6-5 and earn the $11 million check that accompanies its trip to Tempe, Ariz. A 6-5 team is barely bowl eligible. But, from the Big East, it could be BCS eligible.

Let’s run through just how.

Non-conference games don’t matter, so wipe from the slate early-season losses to No. 24 Purdue, No. 16 Virginia and No. 5 Florida State (which are almost certain to take place). All Syracuse has to do is surprise No. 10 West Virginia. And remember, Syracuse has a knack for seasonal upsets (A 50-42 triple-overtime win over Virginia Tech on Nov. 9, 2002, and last year it barely lost at Miami, 17-10.) And even if Syracuse loses to West Virginia (the only Big East team ranked in the Top 25), it still can win the Big East, so long as it runs the Big East table and WVU loses twice.

A 5-1 Big East record (6-5 overall, with losses to the previously stated four teams as well as Cincinnati) positions SU perfectly for a first-place finish, so long as it beats the top Big East team.

‘Hell yeah it’s realistic,’ receiver Andre Fontenette said. ‘I expect us to make a BCS bowl this year. That’s the goal every year. We got the best running back (Walter Reyes) in the Big East, maybe the country. Why not?’

Well, under the current rules, there’s no reason why not. But under the basic rules of sport – you know, that games be competitive, structured, balanced, even, that the best teams reach the most prolific games – there are many reasons.

Talk about mismatches. Can you imagine Syracuse playing on national TV with Oklahoma? Or Southern California?

Syracuse boasts Reyes, sure, but that bright spot fails to outshine its black hole of problems. An unproved receiving corps, a shuffling of the defensive secondary (Steve Gregory and Troy Swittenburg switched positions). A week before the season started, SU literally had a no-name quarterback. This is a team worthy of a BCS spot?

There’s a difference between proving yourself as a team, finishing 9-2 and reaching a BCS bowl game. Even 8-3 could warrant a BCS bowl game, considering Syracuse is playing four Top 25 teams. And who knows? It could beat one or two.

But that a 6-5 team can reach a BCS bowl in the current system is outrageous. And that a team with as many question marks as Syracuse expects to reach one borders on offensive.

But that’s the world of the BCS these days: split national champions; an oligopoly of six conferences; barely bowl-eligible teams expecting to rake in $11 million dollars. And a strong possibility it can happen.

‘You don’t believe us?’ Fontenette asks. ‘You wait and see. We can do it. We can definitely do it.’

And that’s the problem with the BCS.

Scott Lieber is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at smlieber@syr.edu.

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm