The SEC could possible keep one of it's own teams, LSU, out of the national championship with it's decision to select the highest BCS team if the east comes down to a 3 way tie. That would be Georgia and we would get NO BCS points for beating Georgia.
What if the same situation occurs next year with LSU, Ole Miss and Auburn tied ... LSU lost to Florida, but is the highest ranked BCS team. Would it be fair to keep LSU out of the SECCG b/c it might hurt Florida's chance at a MNC?
I agree that the BCS is crap. However, I prefer a straightforward rule such as the new tiebreaker over a vote of the athletic directors. I would have written the rule slightly differently though... With a 3-way tie, I'd have the lowest ranked team (either BCS, AP, and/or ESPN poll) eliminated from contention, and then use the 2-way tie rules on the other two teams. If there's still a tie, that means the two teams didn't play each other that year, and if the other normal tie-breakers don't settle the matter then use the rankings to pick the highest ranked team.
What I don't understand about the new rule is, if you are going to use the BCS as a tiebreaker, why not just use it by itself? Why do they have to say, 'unless they are within 5 spots.' If Tennessee is the highest BCS team, they should go, no questions asked.
The thinking behind that is if you have two teams that are really in contention, ranked #6 and #10 maybe, that they are close enough that the head-to-head matchup should be the deciding factor. Doesn't necessarily make tons of sense to me either though!
I agree with that part of the rule. Especially in this years case. If we have UGA and UT at the top, each finishing 10-2, with both losses coming from in-conference opponents (one of which was common), it seems only logical that head-to-head results should be used. The disparity in their rankings would come from OOC SOS and OOC records. Granted, the win against Miami was big for UT, but why should that be considered? Miami has absolutely nothing to do with the SEC, and I dont think it would be fair to send UT to Atlanta because of it. Head-to-head only makes sense.
