Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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in the trenches andrew owens season finale even more impressive to voters. In the history of the BCS, only five teams ranked lower than 12th in week 11 have qualified for an at-large bid (each team's ranking after week 11 is in parentheses): 2012 Northern Illinois (unranked) The Huskies are the only team on this list that was unranked this late into the year. However, Northern Illinois finished the regular season undefeated and ranked higher than the conference champions of two automatic-qualifying conferences (Louisville of the Big East and Wisconsin of the Big Ten), which automatically qualified them for an at-large bid. 2011 Michigan (No. 24) This is the closest parallel that can be drawn to the 2013 Irish. The Wolverines sat 24th in the BCS standings after week 11 and ascended into the top 14, making them an easy pick for the Sugar Bowl because of their prestige and the revenue they would bring in. Controversially, No. 7 Boise State, No. 8 Kansas State and No. 12 Baylor were all passed up for Michigan, which finished 13th in the final BCS standings. Unlike Notre Dame, which needs a 7-0 finish after a 3-2 start to be eligible, Michigan began the season 6-0 before losing two of three to fall to 24th in the polls. Michigan won its final three games, with the 45-17 victory over No. 16 Nebraska impressing voters the way a potential win at Stanford might for Notre Dame. 2009 Iowa (No. 13) Without the national appeal of Notre Dame or Michigan, Iowa simply benefited from a lack of better choices that year. Only Penn State and Virginia Tech were eligible that year and did not make the BCS. Both Iowa and Penn State finished 10-2, but the Hawkeyes won the headto-head matchup, making a Nittany Lions selection virtually impossible for the folks at the BCS. 2007 Illinois (No. 19) Most people remember this Illinois squad for two games: its November win over Ohio State that — for a brief time — appeared to knock the Buckeyes out of contention for the national championship, and the Rose Bowl game in which it was greatly overmatched against USC. This team, led by quarterback Juice Williams and running back Rashard Mendenhall, sat at No. 19 after week 11 and No. 13 in the final BCS rankings. The biggest reason the Illini were selected was to fill the traditional spot of a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl, which was vacant due to Ohio State's berth in the BCS National Championship Game. 2007 Hawaii (No. 16) Hawaii benefited from a new BCS rule that automatically sent a top-12 non-automatic qualifier to the BCS in one of the at-large berths. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com