Well, now that the teeth-gnashing is over and the Hokies appear to be a mortal lock for the national championship game, let's take a moment to reflect upon whether or not this whole strength of schedule thing really adds up to a hill of beans. My short answer is no.

The Hokies have a schedule ranked #54 out of 114 Division 1-A teams, which just about puts Tech squarely in the middle of the pack. All year long, the doomsayers have been predicting that this weak schedule, which automatically puts Tech at nearly a 2-point disadvantage to the top SEC and Big 10 teams in the BCS poll, would be the Hokies undoing.

They were wrong. In the end, strength of schedule (or lack thereof) cost Tech nothing. Sure, it's not official yet, and won't be until December 5^th, but it looks as if Tech is going to N'Awlins. So you can stop the hand-wringing over whether or not the Hokies should have scheduled JMU.

When the dust cleared, Florida State and Tech, along with Marshall, were the only undefeated major Division 1-A schools. Marshall was never a contender, so it came down to Florida State and whether or not the Hokies could beat out one-loss and two-loss teams from the stronger Big 10, Big 12, and SEC conferences. In effect, the Hokies had to go undefeated and hold off the likes of Tennessee, Florida, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas State.

You should never base conclusions on a limited set of data, but just watching this year's BCS race points out to me that there is more than one path to the national championship game. There's the path that any given SEC or Big 10 school is forced to take -- be a traditional power, get a high preseason ranking based on that tradition, play a tough schedule (primarily because your conference is tough), and win all of the games on that schedule, perhaps being allowed to lose one (as Florida State did last year).

And then there's the path Tech took -- bring back a senior laden team from a successful season, get a relatively high preseason ranking, play a mediocre schedule, thrash the teams on that schedule, go undefeated (which is very doable, when you're as good as Tech and don't have a top-10 team on your schedule), and sit back and cross your fingers that everyone else in front of you loses, maybe more than once.

Hey, it appears to have worked. And that's got to be driving BCS king Roy Kramer and the boys crazy.

It seems to me that it is just as likely, perhaps more likely, for a team to take the path Tech took in reaching the title game, as it is for a team to take the path that Tennessee took last year, of that Florida State has taken this year, with the tough schedules they play. As a matter of fact, I'm starting to think that it's almost impossible for a team from a powerful conference like the SEC or Big 10 to go undefeated, and the task is made even more difficult when the conference in question plays a championship game, like the SEC or Big 12.

It seems to me that a strong team from the ACC or Big East has a much better chance of running the table and making it to the national title game than a team from the other conferences. First of all, a Big East or ACC team only has to win 11 games, not 12, like the winner of the SEC or Big 12 has to do (and that twelfth game is guaranteed to be a doozy that can wreck a great season, as Kansas State found out last year, and Nebraska found out in 1996).

Second of all, the ACC and Big East aren't as strong as the Big 10 or the murderous SEC, so the prospects of going undefeated are better. Admittedly, FSU clouds the "easy conference" issue by adding Florida and Miami to its slate, plus a yearly preseason "classic" game (by the way, when are they just going to rename one of those things the "FSU Preseason Classic" and be done with it?).

I think this stream of consciousness is rapidly getting away from me, so let me cut to the chase as they say. Here's the core of the matter:

So, you want to play in the national championship game, but you're not in the SEC, Big 10, or Big 12? Fine, go undefeated. If you're in one of those conferences, you might be able to sneak in with a loss, but if you're in the Big East or PAC 10, you better go undefeated, or you can forget about it. So pack your out of conference schedule with easy teams. And whip everybody. It's a simple formula, and Tech has ridden it to perfection and a Sugar Bowl berth this year.

The concept of scheduling easy teams instead of top-10 killers has the added benefit that if you schedule really easy teams, like JMU, they'll come to your place, and you won't have to return the trip. Or you can do a 2-for-1. And the AD loves that action on the financial bottom line.

My guess is that Tech's trek to the national championship game may have far-reaching effects throughout the college football world. Coaches and AD's who have ordinarily played strong schedules, such as Syracuse, will suddenly start questioning the wisdom of that philosophy.

If you can play wimps, sign up those wimps to 2-for-1 or 1-for-none deals, and pack your stadium anyway, such as Tech has done this year, then it's a no-brainer. Bring on the cupcakes, win four out of conference games, run the table in-conference, and not only do you get a BCS bid, but you probably get to play in the national championship game.

That would seem to me to be the ideal philosophy for a team in any conference. Schedule easy teams outside your conference, concentrate on winning the conference, and let the computers take care of the rest.

Another effect that Tech's Sugar Bowl appearance will have is that Roy Kramer and his henchmen will no doubt return to the BCS rules for a little more tweaking. I'm one of those conspiracy theory nuts, even though, for example, ESPN's constant hyping of Tech this year has trashed my favorite conspiracy theory, that of the ESPN/ABC power structure in NCAA football, and how they would never hype a team from the Big East.

Anyway, I've got a feeling that Roy's boys will take one look at the fact that the BCS has been in existence for two years now, and it has sent four teams to the national title game, and only one of those teams has been from the powerful SEC, Big 10, and Big 12 conferences. One. And I've got to figure that will spur Roy's crew to do a little tweaking, because you've got to keep the big boys happy, and you can't have the VT's and Kansas States of the world rocking the boat.

To wrap up this long, rambling piece, the message appears to be clear. If you want to go to the championship game, then go undefeated. Most years, this will be all you need to do. You can forget about all the other mumbo-jumbo, including strength of schedule, because although the BCS formula is complicated, the results it produces are not.

Just don't lose. It's that easy.

Home Debut for Men's Hoops. The Hokie men's basketball team makes its Cassell Coliseum debut Saturday against perennially-strong UNC-Charlotte, and I can't wait to see them. In the first half of Monday's UNC-Asheville game, the Hokies flashed the pressure defense and fast-break offense that Coach Ricky Stokes has been promising and rode the frenetic pace to a 39-17 half time lead. One point of concern thus far is the behavior of forward Dennis Mims, who has received a technical foul in each of Tech's first two games. Stokes summarily benched him after his technical in the UNC-Asheville game and left him there for the last seven minutes of the contest.

Hopefully, No Jinx Here. Don't look now, but the Hokies appear on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated (click the link -- you won't regret it), specifically, Andre Davis. Channel 7 reported that the magazine's distribution company will place 15,000 copies of the magazine "in this area," whatever that means. The usual distribution? About 300 copies.

Spinning the Turnstiles. The Hokies averaged 52,519 fans per home game this year, a new record. Tech turned out 51,907 for JMU, UAB, and Clemson, plus 53,130 for Syracuse, Miami, and Boston College.

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