In reality. Both conferences should be happy that they don't play each other in the regular season. If that were the case then you would probably see more teams like Hawaii rearing its ugly head into big bowl games, because each conference(SEC and Big Ten)would start with early season losses back and forth and those teams that manage to get by with a better record in weak conferences would happily come in and steal a BCS bowl game.
That being said I think it is abundantly clear that conferences as well as the NCAA need to do a little soul searching as to rules such as no more than 2 teams from one conference. I for one would have rather seen Missouri and Georgia play each other this year in a BCS bowl, as was clearly deserved.
Every year some elite team, and more often than not it's from the Big Ten or SEC, gets left in the cold. Where's the justice? This isn't an elementary school play ground where everyone gets a turn. If you want to play with the big boys you better be able to hang.
For those of you that want to remind me of Boise State last year, I'm well aware and clearly the better team won. Kudos to them. However when you play in a conference like the WAC it's easy to be well rested for a big bowl game.
SEC and Big Ten teams play games against nationally ranked opponents almost on a weekly basis throughout the regular season and of those often times those ranked opponents are in the top 10 in the country.
Hawaii played one ranked opponent this year, ONE! Boise State (barely in the top 25)