According to Phil Steele in his rankings of all the teams with the hardest schedule, “Northern Illinois, who is a non-BCS school, made it to a BCS bowl game last year, but played the second easiest schedule in college football in front of Old Dominion.” According to Steve Nitz Shaw in the article, Desert is Likely Destination for NIU, NIU sold just 3,266 tickets from its allotment of 17,500 for last season’s Orange Bowl.” To compare to a bigger school, Iowa State made it to a bowl last year and sold around 30,000 tickets. Iowa State sold 10 times the amount NIU did and they didn’t even make it to a BCS bowl. Last year, NIU played Florida State in the Orange Bowl and got beat 31-10. These facts show that non-BCS teams should not play in BCS bowl games. If they’re not selling a lot of tickets to BCS games, the non-BCS teams are getting dominated, and these non-BCS teams have the easiest schedules in college football, why are the BCS bowls sending these teams invites? While they deserve a chance to play in big games, non-BCS teams should not play in BCS bowl games.

The reason Phil Steele said that Northern Illinois has one of the easiest schedules in division 1 is because the only teams they play are teams in their own non-BCS conference. This is true about every other non-BCS team also. Teams do have a few games that are not against conference teams, but usually these out of conference games are against other non-BCS teams. The best team undefeated Northern Illinois had to play this year was Iowa. Looking at that fact, you can see why Northern Illinois went undefeated.

Another reason they should not be allowed in BCS games is because they are a lot smaller than BCS schools. Northern Illinois has an enrollment of around 20,000 students, while BCS schools like Iowa or Iowa State each have around 33,000 students. Because they have fewer students, they make a lot less money and they can’t recruit as well. Should schools with more than 10,000 students less than BCS schools compete with them?

Some people think they should. They think that these smaller schools should get a chance to play a good team instead of the usual not very good opponents. Non-BCS teams like Northern Illinois don’t get a chance to play in big games very often, so playing in a BCS bowl would be a perfect chance to play in a big game with the nation watching. They’d be watching to see how bad the non-BCS team got beat, but the team would give all it’s effort to show they belong. Last year, Northern Illinois didn’t get very far in their BCS bowl game before being blown out by Florida State. This is an example of why non-BCS teams shouldn’t be allowed in BCs bowls, but a couple of years ago, when TCU was in a non-BCS conference, they won the Rose Bowl against a very good Wisconsin team. TCU did move up to the Big 12 though, so they were ready to be a BCS team.

To go back to the topic of non-BCS schools being small schools, the NCAA is thinking of making a “Division 4”. This will separate BCS and non-BCS teams into different divisions. "We've made it too easy to get into Division I," Bowlsby said at a media day. In the division 4, the BCS schools will get to make their own rules, like being able to pay athletes to come to their school and other rules like that, that the non-BCS schools wouldn’t be able to afford. According to Dennis Dodd in the article Division 4 Football is Possible, “If a division 4 is created, the non-BCS conferences (Conference USA, Mountain West, MAC, Sunbelt, and American) would be cut out of major college football”. This would permanently prevent them from going to BCS games or the 4-team college football playoff next year.

Some people argue that they should get to play in BCS games, because you make millions of dollars for your school by playing in these games. These games are always on ESPN, so if they play in these games, they get even more money from ESPN. If they don’t get a chance to make a lot of money for their school by playing in these games, then it wouldn’t be fair. Bigger schools are automatic qualifying if they win their conference. Should they get millions of dollars and the smaller schools only get around a hundred thousand, just because they’re bigger?

The reason BCS bowls worry about selling a lot of tickets is because they want to make a lot of money off of ticket sales. They also want the stadium to be filled with fans so the game is more exciting. This means selling more than 30,000 tickets. When teams like Northern Illinois play in a BCS bowl, about a quarter of the stadium is empty. That is another reason BCS bowls don’t like to choose non-BCS teams.

In conclusion, while they deserve a chance to play in big games, non-BCS teams should not play in BCS bowl games. Some people think they should because they need a chance to play in big games. I think they shouldn’t though because they have easy schedules and are a lot smaller schools.