By Jim Litke
AP Sports Columnist

First, they threatened to sue. Then they tried to make a federal case out of it. But nobody took college football's have-nots seriously - or their demands for a bigger share of the BCS pie - until they took matters into their own hands.

In the span of a few hours, Marshall, Toledo and Northern Illinois - three underdogs from the lowly Mid-American Conference - smashed cream pies in the faces of No. 6 Kansas State, No. 9 Pitt and No. 21 Alabama. Afterward, they were only too happy to claim credit.

"Nobody can ever take this away from me," said Marshall quarterback Graham Gochneaur, who tossed two touchdown passes.

Not that the BCS won't try.

This could be the season when the argument between college football's haves and have-nots, which has been heating up since the creation of the Bowl Championship Series five years ago, finally boils over.

On one side are 63 teams from the six conferences that share in the BCS' annual bounty, divvying up about $85 million; on the other side are 54 schools from the five non-BCS leagues, who split the remaining $5 million.

Led by Tulane president Scott Cowen, whose team went 12-0 in 1998 and was snubbed by the major bowls, the outsiders lately have been demanding a better cut. Earlier this month, they met with their counterparts from the BCS leagues amid vague threats of a court case. Then they watched with rapt attention while Congress called some BCS officials to discuss antitrust issues.

But nothing worked like making their case in the court of public opinion - the football field.

After a sprinkling of upsets over the past few weeks - the most impressive being UNLV beating Wisconsin at home - the have-nots enjoyed perhaps their best weekend ever.

Remember, the BCS was created to protect the status quo.

Champions from six of 11 Division I-A BCS-friendly conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Pac-10, Southeastern and Big 12) are granted automatic berths in the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta or Rose bowls, which pay about $13 million per team. The two highest-ranked teams play in a national championship game. The two remaining bowl slots go to teams chosen from those conferences or Notre Dame.

But even more important than making those matchups is making sure the same playoff system that decides every other championship in college sports isn't used in I-A football. The BCS' other headache is finding ways to keep the misfits from the non-BCS leagues (MAC, Mountain West, WAC, Sun Belt, Conference USA) from crashing the party.

In the past, natural selections did most of the BCS' work.

Teams that belong to the BCS have won every national championship dating to World War II, except for Brigham Young's controversial title in 1984.

In 20 seasons preceding BCS control, all but one of the 160 slots in the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls were filled by BCS teams. That should come as little surprise. The teams in the BCS conferences have more talent, bigger stadiums, better-paid coaches and many more fans.

But all of those margins have been trimmed in recent years.

A reduction in the number of scholarships have made it much more difficult to stockpile players, which is how players like Gochneaur (himself a backup) and Northern Illinois' Michael Turner (156 yards against Alabama) got away from the big-game programs. And just like the good players have been spread around, so have some of the best coaching minds in the game.

What the BCS should do is include the best teams from all the conferences, not just the teams from the best conferences. Instead, the BCS bosses made it harder for the have-nots to make it to the end.

They have to finish in the top six in the final rankings to be guaranteed a berth in a BCS bowl. They can't even qualify for consideration unless they're in the top 12. (Helpful hint: No team from a non-BCS league has been ranked higher than No. 10 since 1998.)

That's what makes this wave of upsets so entertaining. By the time the season hits its stride, there could be more than just a few of the big boys still running around undefeated, and they won't be the only ones with impressive credentials. Because of the upsets, a few of the little guys will bulk up their strength-of-schedule numbers, and be that little bit harder to overlook.

The first BCS poll is still weeks away, but here's a pleasant thought: More than the usual number of people will be paying close attention by then.

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org