Hawaii is taking flak for a schedule that includes two Football Championship Subdivision teams, formerly known as Division I-AA. Hawaii’s first nine opponents have a combined .259 winning percentage.

“You’ve got to understand that this team has played the worst schedule in the 10-year history of the BCS, by a lot,” said BCS analyst Jerry Palm, who runs the collegebcs.com Web site from Indiana. “I look at this team and I think, they’re no better than seventh or eighth in the Big Ten.”

WAC commissioner Karl Benson takes issue with that. He said the schedule isn’t Hawaii’s fault; the Warriors lost a date with Michigan State and ended up filling it with a second lower-division opponent.

“They offered to play games on the mainland,” he said. “They offered to play at Michigan, at Indiana. They were willing to go on the road to fill a game.”

Tell that to the computers.

Palm said the Warriors can expect a bump in the computers if they beat 5-4 Nevada (that’s their record, not their height) and 9-1 Boise State. But the computers may hold their noses when Hawaii meets 3-7 Washington, its lone BCS-level opponent.

If Hawaii wins out, Palm gives the Warriors “better than a 50-50 shot” of finishing in the BCS Top 12, which would mean a guaranteed BCS berth, probably in the Sugar Bowl, for Colt Brennan and Co.

Oregon’s chances of reaching the title game may be better than 50-50. Or they may not. Nobody can say for sure.

All we know about the BCS is that we never know about the BCS.

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