bcs analysis

In this bowl season, which has so far been one fused with no shortage of thrills, the Pac-10 swept the competition at 5-0. The non-BCS Mountain West had their solid conference run culminate in a Utah Utes drudging of supposed SEC steamroller 'Bama. And despite the WAC not having as strong a postseason as it has in recent landmark years, we all remember Boise State over Oklahoma.

Why then do the Pac-10 and their regional non-BCS counterparts never get their just props, especially comparatively to the major conferences residing in the South and the East of the country? Every year we see USC not only beat, but entirely smother a Big Ten pretender. We also have seen with increasing bravado a non-BCS team such as Boise State or Utah come into a bowl as a heavy underdog and wreak havoc on some big-time player from the Big 12, SEC and all the other major conferences that year in and year out simply get more respect than them.

It's not just some conference bias, but an outright coastal bias. And every year this perception costs west coast teams street cred and a fair shake at bigger bowls with larger amounts of confetti. It's a constant perpetuation that allows west coast teams little leeway during the season and causes them frequently to drop in and out of the Top 25 at the drop of a dime. It's the old hegemony sticking with outdated tradition disrupting the reality of college football today. And that reality is the west coast is simply cultivating better athletes and in larger and more diverse quantities.

But why? Experts that do agree with this assessment overlook the key components in this equation: the rapid ascent of Orange County and the migration of Pacific Islanders.

Orange County has quickly become in recent years ripe picking grounds for recruits, some of the top nationally. But more importantly, the many lightly-recruited, undersized "athletes" types that end up at Pac-10 and non-BCS west coast schools with little fanfare. Do a study and you'll see that the players taking up scholarships and roster spots in major college sports in major conferences these days from Orange County has risen exponentially with this generation. Heck, Tustin High School currently has the most active players in the NFL, more than Long Beach Poly, more than any school from Texas or Florida or anywhere in the dirty south.

Correlative, a steady portion of these players are of Pacific Islander descent, Polamalu, Moala, Ngata, Maleuaga, Moevao; These Samoan and Tongan families just now having their first generation of American-born children coming-of-age in America.

In unison, these two factors play a significant role in the strength of west coast prep sports (and perhaps why the perception of such suffers). Such an influx, despite maybe not nabbing those blue-chip recruits, gives these teams the luxury of having substantial depth on both sides of the ball; talent and athleticism filling holes and flying around the field at every position.

Wake up college football.