So, since the first bowl participant has been decided, it's time for me to dust off the crystal ball and start with the predictions. I don't have the courage of master prognosticator, Lee Corso, who made his Championship Game prediction before the first game of the year was played. Everyone will be mentioning creative scenarios featuring unbelievable matchups soon enough, so I'm gonna get my 2 cents in now and try not to muddy the water too much.

The big conference winners in this year's bowl picture will be the two conferences that win the at-large BCS bids. Although plenty of smack-talking has been delivered at Tennessee's expense after their loss to Arkansas dropped them from the National Title hunt, they still should receive one of the at-large bids along with Michigan. The SEC and the Big-10 are the two best football conferences this year, so they rightfully deserve the extra bids.

The big loser in this year's bowl picture is Marshall. The Thundering Herd can expect no better than the Motor City Bowl for winning the MAC title this year, even though they are one of only 3 undefeated teams remaining, boast a Heisman contender in Chad Pennington, and have notched a non-conference win over Clemson. Of course, that is nothing compared to the disgrace Miami of Ohio had to endure last year. They finished their season 10-1 and were left out of the bowl picture entirely! The Las Vegas Bowl picked up 6-5 North Carolina last year as an at-large team. Incidentally, the Miami Redhawks beat the Tarheels earlier in the season too.

This just goes to show the importance of conference affiliation. As much fun as Hokie fans have had lambasting the Big East over the past few years due to a suspected lack of respect, Virginia Tech must realize that they would be in the same boat as Miami (Ohio) without the automatic bowl berths.

The Big East has commitments the following bowls:

• BCS berth for #1 team
• Toyota Gator Bowl for #2 team
• Insight.com Bowl for #3 team
• Music City Bowl for #4 team

The Insight.com bowl was drooling over the possibility of picking up the Irish, but simply ended up with a stained shirt when Boston College won their game this weekend. Although the Insight.com will provide some more money to be split up amongst conference members, as well as providing a reward for Tom O'Brien's team, the bowl in Arizona is an ugly bid for an East Coast team, as was witnessed with West Virginia last year. Don't expect many fans to travel across the continent to that game. With the game being played on New Year's Eve of the Millennium, you can expect viewership to be at the same level as a 3-hour segment of paid advertising for the Thigh Master. Oddly enough, if the Eagles would have lost in South Bend, their bowl destination would have been in Tennessee for the Music City Bowl instead of Arizona. Although the team would prefer the win and higher rating, the fan's would most assuredly prefer the shorter travel distance for the Music City.

Regardless, the victory by Boston College over Notre Dame was the best thing that could have happened for the Big East, removing the golden domers from bowl contention. This also provides a dramatic conclusion for the Hokie's season finale with 8-2 top 20 BC team visiting Lane Stadium.

The Big East's BCS berth goes to the Big East Champion, but the three other bowls can select any team as long as they are bowl-eligible and meet the conference's "one-win" rule. That states any selection of a team with fewer victories must be within one win of all other bowl eligible teams. So, even if Miami was to lose one of their last 2 games, the Hurricanes would finish 7-5 and could bump another Big East team with an 8-win record -- such as Boston College. So, unless Miami loses their remaining 2 games (against Syracuse and Temple), the Hurricanes should end up bowling in Jacksonville.

If Pittsburgh can win their last game against West Virginia, they will become bowl eligible for the first time in 4 years. Add in their gutsy performances in the games they've played this year, and I think they stand a good shot at a bowl. At 6-5, they will be battling it out with Syracuse to pick up the Music City Bowl bid. The Panthers probably have a better shot though, since the end of their season has shown more promise than the Orangemen's collapse. Syracuse still has a chance at one of the two at-large berths available (Oahu Bowl and Motor City Bowl). The Hawaiian bowl will probably pick up one of the teams from the Mountain West, so the Orangemen might be making plans to spend Christmas in Pontiac, Michigan to face unbeaten Marshall.

As for Virginia Tech, just when it seemed like the BCS controversies were silenced through a 43-10 thumping of Miami, they find themselves facing the same obstacle when Tennessee jumped over them in the polls. Right now, there is a slender margin between the Hokies and the Cornhuskers. With Florida State knocking off Florida this weekend, Nebraska was able to cut the cushion down even slimmer, without playing anybody!. Who knows what the computer polls will do next week when Nebraska plays Colorado, and then faces Texas in their Big-12 finale. The Big Red Machine may actually jump ahead of the Hokies. It makes for interesting debate, but as Coach Beamer likes to point out, there is still a lot of football to be played.

I don't have the same restrictions as coaches though, so I can postulate, formulate, meditate, and cogitate all I want (sounds painful, doesn't it?). After all is said and done, here's how I see the BE bowl picture unfolding:

As long as I'm in a forecasting mood, I might as well look at the Hokie's upcoming opponents too. Respect is something all Hokie fans continually clamor about, so strong finishes this year by VT's next year's opponents are good in that department. Two OOC opponents for next year are headed to bowls this year. With Maryland's late season collapse, UVA should be a lock for the Micron PC Bowl facing the #6 team out of the Big Ten -- a toss up between Illinois and Purdue. Even with the loss to UAB, ECU is still in the midst of a dream season and will be rewarded with a season-ending bowl trip. They will go to the Mobile Alabama bowl to face the WAC's #2 team. Strong bowl performances by these two teams could act as a springboard into next year's preseason top 25.

There's an interesting side-note to the big bowl picture. Several rules were put into place over the past few years meant to curtail the chances of a smaller school without the major media influences -- insert Virginia Tech here -- going to one of the major bowls. First, the BCS instituted its infamous Big East rule, which took effect starting this year. The rule backfired since the Hokies stand a great chance of finishing the regular season ranked no lower than #3 in the BCS. Therefore, the BE champ only needs to finish no higher than #15 for the next three years to meet the rule's criteria. On the other hand, one of the BCS golden conferences in terms of media markets is struggling with respect to this new rule. Stanford, the PAC-10's highest contender, is presently outside the top 25 in the AP and barely inside the Coach's Poll, and will most likely not crack the BCS top 25 by season's end.

The other rule, which was aimed much more specifically at VT, is the Big East's own policy regarding bowl affiliations. After the Hokies earned the Sugar Bowl bid in 1995, the Big East changed the rules the following year so that the Alliance Bowls could choose the #2 team from the Big East if they were ranked at least 5 spots higher in both polls. The intent behind this was to provide Miami greater opportunity to advance to the top tier bowl even if the Hokies managed to beat them in a given year. That plan too almost backfired this year. If Miami had beaten Virginia Tech this year, there was still a decent chance the Hokies would have maintained a large enough lead in the polls to win an Orange Bowl berth. Maybe they should have consulted their crystal balls too before drafting these rules... or at the very least, asked Corso for his expert opinion!