College Football is a difficult thing

I'm reading all of these articles about how somehow Virginia Tech is going to get screwed out of the Rose Bowl if both they and Texas win out, and I wonder, why was Virginia Tech forbidden from scheduling one decent non-conference opponent. I'm not sure told them that they had no choice but to play Ohio, West Virginia and Marshall, as their non-conference opponents. It's wrong and for that I feel bad for them. The same goes to poor, poor, Alabama, who was forced to play Middle Tennessee State, Southern Mississippi and Utah State. They wanted to play a tough schedule, but they just weren't allowed. In Virginia Tech's case, they have played a decent Georgia Tech team and a decent Boston College team in their conference schedule. There one tough game of the year comes in a week against Miami. Miami will win that game. If Va Tech doesn't win against Miami then they will miss out on the chance to lose to Florida State in the ACC championship game. Alabama finally gets to their somewhat decent competition of the year with an okay Auburn team and a good LSU coming up on their schedule. Again, I feel so very sorry for these programs that were forced to play a cupcake schedule. At least they weren't made to suffer the fate of Texas Tech and play the easiest non-conference schedule in the nation.

note: In 2007, Alabama will play a non-conference game against Florida State