As you probably already know, the loyal members of the Big East Football Conference (Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Rutgers, Connecticut, and probably Louisville, Cincinnati, and DePaul) will keep their automatic bid to a BCS bowl until 2005. What happens after that? Well, the BCS Commissioners are currently mulling that over. ESPN’s Ivan Maisel reports the following on their progress.

The BCS commissioners are looking at eight different plans to modify the Bowl Championship Series beginning in 2006. Among the changes being considered are a lowering of the qualifying standard for the non-BCS champions, a play-in game for the highest-ranked champions of the non-BCS conferences, an expansion to a fifth bowl, a post-BCS championship game, or some combination therein.

The most appealing to both sides is the lowering of the qualifying standard. Whether the BCS adds a fifth bowl or not, giving a team that finishes in the top 20 in the BCS standings an automatic bid makes competitive sense and puts the antitrust question to rest.

Assuming that the Big East Football Conference will lose it’s automatic BCS bowl bid after 2005 (and I now think that this is a fairly safe assumption), either (1) lowering the qualifying standards for non-BCS conference teams (which Pitt will likely become) to play in a BCS bowl, (2) starting a BCS play-in game for the highest-ranked non-BCS conference teams, or (3) expanding to a fifth BCS bowl (thus making more conferences into BCS conferences) would be acceptable. Of course, I’d prefer the last option. Maintaining a guaranteed Big East BCS bowl bid is always better than having to fight it out for a bid with the MAC and Mountain West teams.

However, adding a fifth BCS bowl may not fly because it would spread the BCS money to more teams than the current BCS conferences would like. So I’m currently betting that the BCS Commissioners will just lower the qualifying standards for non-BCS teams to play in a BCS bowl. This isn’t good for Pitt (and we still should be fighting to get in the Big Ten, which will obviously maintain its automatic BCS bowl bid), but it’s acceptable.

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Finally, under the “Laughing At Penn State’s Misfortunes” category (and don’t think that they weren’t laughing when we lost to Notre Dame), the Nittany Lion’s star wide receiver, senior Tony Johnson, has been charged with Driving Under the Influence of alcohol after he was pulled over at 3:00 AM last Friday morning. Thus, Johnson joins offensive lineman E.Z. Smith (who was cited for underage drinking twice in one week in August), defensive back Anwar Phillips (who was charged but later acquitted of sexual assault), and a long list of other Nittany Lion football players who have discovered that there is absolutely nothing to do in State College but drink and screw.

What makes Tony Johnson’s DUI bust so entertaining, though, is the fact that his father — Larry Sr. — is Penn State’s defensive line coach and a highly respected member of State College society who regularly and repeatedly speaks to Centre County’s churches and church groups. My parents, bible-thumpers themselves, love the Johnson family. Tony’s brother Larry Jr., of course, was the Lion’s brilliant tailback who rushed for 2,000 yards last season.

So the moral of the story is, don’t drive around State College after dark in anything smaller than a Hummer. That guy in the car coming the other way might just be a Penn State football player.

Hail to George Foreman’s Lean Mean Grilling Machine (Jen and I got one as a wedding present, and damn is it slick)