TCU fans knew not for which they cheered on BCS selection show
By Matt Hinton

If you were wondering during Sunday night's BCS rollout on Fox why TCU fans seemed so excited about a rematch of last year's Poinsettia Bowl with Boise State that offered neither team the opportunity to vanquish its skeptics against an elite powerhouse, it was for good reason: They really weren't that excited. According to TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, most of the enthusiastic crowd shots were whipped up and canned well before the show began, of fans who had no idea where they were going or who they were going to play (emphasis added):

So the team is there, coach Gary Patterson is there, the Fox camera crew is there and Fox reporter Charissa Thompson is there. According to coach Schlossnagle, the producers were there pumping their fists and getting the crowd jazzed with applause signs and all. He said they didn’t know which bowl game they were going to play in at the beginning of the taping and even when it did go live, Thompson only told the fans gathered there that they were going to the Fiesta Bowl and not who they would play.

Coach Patterson was finally told it would be against Boise State right before Thompson stuck a mic in his face.

It was when people started filing out of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum that the fans realized it was a rematch with Boise State that their Frogs got and not the chance to play a team like Florida. The crowd walked away disappointed. No chance to prove themselves against the snobby big-money players in the good ole boys network.

The BCS: Sending 'em away disappointed since 1998.
Not that I'm exactly in the "Plessy v. Ferguson" camp about this game -- you know, teams from non-BCS leagues are relegated to the "separate but equal" bowl -- because the matchup is more a quirk of the selection order and automatic tie-ins than a conspiracy to keep the little guys down. But when the only energy for your system has to be goaded by camera crews from crowds that would react with anger and disappointment when provided with accurate information, that public relations push still has a long row to hoe.