But what did this game to due to Michigan's BCS ranking?

Going into the Hawaii game, Michigan was ranked 14th in the BCS, and its schedule was ranked 11th. But since strength of schedule is calculated based on a weighted combination of the sum of the records of opponents and the sum of the records of opponents' opponents, the extra 12th game against Hawaii--a winless team playing a weak schedule--crippled Michigan's strength of schedule ranking. The Wolverines plummeted entirely out of the published BCS rankings.

Nobody noticed this and nobody cared, because the BCS rankings only matter for the top teams anyway.

But what if Michigan had been one of the top teams in the country in 1998? What if Michigan had beaten Ohio State and Notre Dame that year and gone into the Hawaii game with a 10-1 record? This isn't too unlikely, considering that the Wolverines were national champions in 1997.

Likely, without the Hawaii game, Michigan would have been second in the BCS rankings, behind undefeated Tennessee and ahead of the actual No. 2 Florida State. But the strength of schedule penalty caused by the extra game against Hawaii would have been enough to knock Michigan behind Florida State and out of the national championship picture.

So, in other words, under the current BCS system, playing an extra game against a bad team will always hurt a team's BCS ranking. Yes, the BCS rankings would have looked more favorably upon the Michigan football players if they had chosen to spend their weekend in Hawaii binge drinking and sunbathing rather than playing an actual football game. If the Wolverines had triumphed 73-0 over the Rainbows, the BCS would still have given them a slap in the face.

Maybe "good teams" just shouldn't play "mediocre teams" like Hawaii. But how fair is that? The aforementioned Hawaii team went from 0-12 to 9-4 in one season, under the tutelage of former Atlanta Falcons coach June Jones. Not every bad team is mired in perpetual mediocrity.

While the BCS should reward teams for playing difficult schedules, why on earth should a team be penalized for playing an extra game in Hawaii? It is only a matter of time before such a disaster costs a team the national championship.