ORLANDO, Fla. — We heard the threats loud and clear from Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman at the recent BCS Congressional hearing: If you don’t like the BCS, then we’ll just go back to the old way of doing business.

You know, with conference tie-ins, matchups decided before the regular season ends and no guarantees of a 1-vs.-2 matchup. Though the scenario is highly unlikely, I began wondering what the past bowl season would have looked like without the BCS.
There would have been no Gators vs. Oklahoma, that’s for sure. So without No. 1 vs. No. 2, the national champion most certainly would have been disputed, with four one-loss teams and undefeated Utah all vying for the crown, and trying to run up the score in their bowl games to impress the voters.
Here is my guess at potential matchups:
Rose Bowl: That matchup would have stayed the same, with Pac-10 champ Southern California playing Big Ten champ Penn State. USC won, 38-24.
Sugar Bowl: The Gators would have played in New Orleans with their automatic SEC tie-in. Perhaps they would have faced high-octane Texas Tech. Who would have won? Considering the Gators stopped the most prolific scoring offense in NCAA history in Oklahoma, we’ll go with the Gators. Boy, this game would have been fun to watch.
Orange Bowl: Oklahoma would have gone to Miami as the Big 12 tie-in, against Alabama. This also presents another intriguing matchup. Would Alabama’s defense put on a clinic the way the Gators did, proving the power of the SEC? Alabama certainly would have been “up” for this game, unlike its Sugar Bowl loss to Utah. But I’m going with Oklahoma in this one — too much offense.
Fiesta Bowl: Here’s where things get interesting. With no conference tie-in, the game would get two at-large teams. But what order would the bowls be selecting their teams? And would the Fiesta Bowl take non-power conference Utah instead of more traditional Ohio State? One of my colleagues seems to think Utah would have wound up in this game simply because it was ranked No. 7, and the undefeated Utes would have provided an enticing matchup.
Texas would have still made it into this game. But I’m thinking the Fiesta would have still gone with Ohio State because of its bowl-game tradition. That, and not wanting to upset the power conferences with a team from the Mountain West. Texas and Ohio State did play in the 2009 game, with the Longhorns winning 24-21.
Utah would have ended up in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Given this scenario, we could have had another split national champion: Florida would have stayed No. 1 in the AP and Oklahoma would have stayed No. 1 in the coaches’ poll. And Utah would have been on the outside looking in, once again.
Despite the argument this scenario makes in favor of the BCS, I’m still a proponent of a playoff. Though the BCS is better than the old way of doing things, it’s not the best way.