With the addition of a couple of more competitive teams to the conference the PAC 10 and Big Ten in my opinion have slipped ahead of the Big 12 in terms of BCS Title Game selection points because they each now have a conference championship game that will allow them to get those last game extra bonus points sometimes needed on Selection Sunday. Put both just a notch ( for now ) behind the SEC in this category only because of the SEC's 5 year BCS Title reign. If OU and Texas were smart they would each schedule a series of home and home games with the toughest non-con teams they could find to be played on the Saturday before Selection Sunday.
meh....I think the fact that the polls and computers always seem to love OU and Texas will mitigate not having a championship game IMHO. Also the fact that we play in the Central Time Zone also helps us. The Pac10 faced not only not having a championship game but also playing so many late games due to the timezone thing hurt them with people east of the mississippi seeing them. But it really only hurt them in years when USC wasn't the top dog, when USC is the top dog they had no problems with the BCS.
Didn't hurt Oregon last year either and it doesn't matter when there are only two unbeatens from top conferences left standing. It does matter when there are several teams with identical records.
You can't underestimate the value come BCS selection time of playing a national showcase game vs. at the very least a team with a winning record and possibly even an elite team with a high national ranking. That conference title game is one of only thirteen games played and falls on the day preceeding Selection Sunday. If I was a Big Ten/Pac 12 fan with national title aspirations and hopes I would appreciate having that opportunity for my team vs. not having it. Of course there are drawbacks such as unbeaten....#1 ranked all season long Florida in 2009 having to play similarly unbeaten Alabama in the SECCG....resulting in a loss for the Gators.