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The Mountain West has an issue this postseason in that they have seen bowl eligible teams with just six bowl tie-ins. There have been talks about shopping Boise State to an outside bowl, but now there could be even more options. Friday night, Northern Illinois fell to Bowling Green in the MAC title game and are no longer heading to the BCS, and with that it could mean a second Big 12 or Pac-12 team.
Currently the next team(s) in line for a BCS berth are Baylor Clemson, Oklahoma State or Oregon, and that is assuming the favorite teams in Saturday's title games go as planned. Getting a pair of Big 12 teams in a bowl game could work out to be the best since they currently already don't have enough teams to fill their bowl spots, but Notre Dame already has taken the league's spot in the Pinstripe Bowl.
However, the Texas Bowl could become an option and that is much more geographical sound, and the opponent would be a Big Ten team. The Big 12 also has the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Phoenix and the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, so there are some options for some good bowl games. Right now a Pac-12 team is slotted in the Texas Bowl.
If Oregon gets into a BCS bowl game that may help the Mountain West somehow but mainly because since the Pac-12 has nine bowl eligible teams it opens up an at-large bowl spot they occupy such as the Texas Bowl and the Independence Bowl.
The ACC has plenty of bowl tie-ins even if they do get a pair of teams in the BCS so in the end what happens with the ACC does not really matter all that much. The best scenario would be for another Big 12 or Pac-12 team to get into a BCS bowl game.
