Thanks to our resident BCS aficionado over at BCS Evolution who clarified BYU's BCS status if they go independent by way of an observent regular commenter displacedute. My initial thought was that they would be treated as any other non-BCS team, but that is not the case according to the BCS rules:
3. The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:
A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or,
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls
The key words are champion of the said conferences.
Then for some fun here is Notre Dame's own special rule:
4. Notre Dame will have an automatic berth if it is in the top eight of the final BCS Standings.
So unless BYU gets some sort of special deal within the BCS or they get included in rule number three, getting to a BCS bowl game just became that much harder to get to. Wondering if the BYU higher ups even looked at that clause. Also, can the rules be changed to make an exception for BYU to be part of rule three or get some exception for BCS inclusion.
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