BYU got a little revenge Saturday.

No, the undefeated Cougars won't get an at-large Bowl Championship Series berth. One of the bigger injustices in BCS history will not be rectified. The eight spots are virtually locked in pending the Tennessee-LSU game. It's just a question of where teams are going to play.

BYU, 11-0 after a 41-38 victory over Mississippi State, will not get a ticket to the elite bowl ball mostly because of a weak schedule. It has constantly had to endure a verbal stiff-arm from BCS officials, who keep telling it, "Those are the rules." The deck, numbers and power conference commissioners are stacked against the Cougars.

Enjoy the next month, BYU, because it's back-in-your-face time for the BCS. You want outrage? Try the national outcry that will emerge if Nebraska backs into the Rose Bowl this week. The Huskers -- not-so-fresh off surrendering 62 points to Colorado -- would easily move into the BCS No. 2 spot if Tennessee loses the SEC title game Saturday to LSU.

At that point, Nebraska's season will have been over for 15 days. Its prospects will have gone from Holiday Bowl to Rose Bowl -- without playing. Quarterback Eric Crouch already has gone from dropping out of the Heisman race to perhaps the favorite -- while sitting at home.

This, remember, is how the BCS wanted it. This is what their hallowed system is about to spit out:

This year's matchups are easily the worst in the BCS' short four-year history. There's a good possibility three of the four BCS bowls won't be sold out. That might be the best possible scenario. The BCS could be infected with one three-loss team (LSU) and a two-loss team (Florida).

Start with the national championship game. It's going to be either Miami-Tennessee or Miami-Nebraska. After getting shafted last year, Miami did everything it had to do and was rewarded. The Vols certainly deserve to be there after their manly upset of Florida in The Swamp. But if Tennessee loses to the Tigers, Nebraska going to Pasadena almost makes one's skin crawl.

62-36. That is the Huskers' closing statement. They're not even the best team in the Big 12. Hell, they didn't even play for a chance to be the best team in the Big 12.

Officially, Nebraska finished tied with Colorado in the Big 12 North. That tie was broken by Chris Brown's six touchdowns and a 26-point loss with everything on the line on Nov. 23.

Congratulations Huskers, your ticket to Pasadena is an LSU upset away.

Fiesta Bowl officials looked visibly concerned in the Texas Stadium press box that a once-sexy matchup (Texas-Oregon, Nebraska-Oregon) had been locked into Colorado-Oregon. They will never say it, but this one stinks. Oregon will travel well playing in its first Fiesta, but Coloradans are more concerned about the slopes in January than Bobby Pesavento's completion percentage.

The Sugar Bowl doesn't have an anchor team for the first time in recent memory. Nebraska-Illinois is a snoozer. Plenty of tickets, as they say, are still available.

Long story short: Nebraska fans won't travel in hoards if their team isn't in the title hunt. Illinois? Let's just say this: With the Big Ten title on the line on Thanksgiving, Illini "fans" barely filled half of Memorial Stadium for a game that wasn't televised.

Florida-Maryland is going to be yet another reminder that the Orange Bowl might be living on borrowed time. Maryland is a great story, but it's still uncertain how many Terps will travel to South Florida. The Gators are deflated and defeated. Playing in anything besides the Rose Bowl at this point is going to be hard to swallow even for the Ol' Ball Coach.

"We didn't win anything this year," Steve Spurrier said amid the gloom of the 34-32 Tennessee loss.

If the Orange Bowl can't get its act together, it might be time for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., to step up and become a BCS bowl in its place. If the Orange drops down a rung below the BCS level, it can hardly be worse than the passive interest the game gets in years it is not playing host to the national championship game.

And we haven't even gotten into the TV implications. There's no Notre Dame this year. The key New York, Los Angeles and Chicago markets couldn't care less about the Fiesta, Sugar or Orange matchups.

Yuck.

Frank Solich and Nebraska are testing the theory that good things come to those who wait.(AP)

That's the effects of parity. The BCS fathers knew that going in. They probably never knew it could be this destructive to their multimillion-dollar gold mine. There's another p-word that will be brought up again by critics who glance at this ugly litter. Perhaps if there were a playoff, BYU would be in. Certainly a first-round game between Miami and BYU would sell out. Nebraska might have to play a Texas. Interesting.

But this is what the BCS is going to have to live with, at least through the 2005 season and perhaps far into the future. Whether the current situation moves us toward a playoff is doubtful. BYU still has to go to Hawaii this week to complete an undefeated season. If that happens, and BYU has to finally settle for the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 31, it won't be fair.

But the Cougars can be satisfied that in their absence, the BCS was uncomfortable getting exactly what it wanted.

Giving no quarter

A tale of two quarterbacks directly impacted Saturday's shakeups.

Spin it any way you want, but Grant Noel basically lost the game for Virginia Tech. Credit Miami for forcing Michael Vick's replacement into bad situations. Noel threw four interceptions, was sacked five times and the 'Canes recovered one of his fumbles.

His numbers in such a big game were an embarrassment: 4-of-16 for 81 yards.

Offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle knew the Hokies had to win this year by keeping the ball out of Noel's hands. He has neither the body nor mind to match Vick. Noel needs to learn to make better decisions, such as how to throw the ball away under pressure.

When freshman running back Kevin Jones got injured in the second half, it put more pressure on Noel. Then, with the game on the line, Noel probably threw his best pass of the game to Ernest Wilford on the two-point conversion try that would have tied it.

Wilford dropped it, but the game never should have ended up in that situation. Noel gave it away.

"The team played with great heart," Noel said. "I played terrible."

The same can be said for Texas' Chris Simms. The Texas junior is officially in the enigma category after coughing up the Big 12 title game. His three interceptions and a fumble in the first half led to a 29-17 Colorado lead that Texas couldn't overcome.

Simms' profile seems to be that of a gifted athlete who piles up big numbers against lesser teams but freezes in the headlights against good teams. Texas' past three big games have been losses to Oregon (2000 Holiday Bowl), Oklahoma and Colorado.

In those games, Simms has completed 50-of-92 for 573 yards and a staggering 11 interceptions and no touchdowns.

If Mack Brown wants to win the Holiday Bowl against Washington, he is going to have to seriously consider senior Major Applewhite.

Scoping the nation

• To the BCS' credit, the three biggest games of the day were each decided by two points -- two of them on missed two-point conversions. Virginia Tech missed against Miami. Florida's Rex Grossman couldn't find a receiver with 1:10 left to tie Tennessee. Colorado survived a last-minute touchdown by Texas that made it close.
• Speaking of Grossman, the Heisman race is a jumble. It's hard to give it to Florida's quarterback after he failed to win against Auburn and Tennessee. Miami's Ken Dorsey was ordinary against Virginia Tech. There are no deserving running back or defensive candidates. As mentioned, Crouch might grab the hardware by sitting. Voters should be reminded that Crouch accounted for a school-record 360 yards in total offense in the Colorado loss. Also don't forget Fresno State's David Carr. He threw for 432 yards and six touchdowns against Utah State. OK, so it's Utah State, but Carr threw for 4,300 yards this year and accounted for an incredible 47 touchdowns -- 42 passing and five running. Fresno State finished 11-2, and Carr was a main ingredient in victories over Colorado, Wisconsin and Oregon State.
• What a waste for Antwaan Randle El. The Hoosiers quarterback is a superb athlete who wasted his career at Indiana. At a better program, Randle El might have competed for a Heisman. His lasting accomplishment at Indiana was becoming the first major-college player to pile up 2,500 yards in total offense in four consecutive seasons. He led the Hoosiers to five victories this year for the first time since 1994. Indiana won four of its last five to finish 5-6. Here's hoping a quality NFL team can surround Randle El with enough talent to properly showcase his.
• SMU has contacted Southern Cal offensive coordinator Norm Chow about its opening. Chow, believed to be one of the highest-paid assistants in the country, might have to take a pay cut to become the Mustangs head coach.
• North Texas (5-6) officially became the first team to go to a bowl with a losing record since 1970. The Mean Green lost to Troy State 18-16. They will go to the inaugural New Orleans Bowl.