Either the Big East is a BCS conference, or it isn't

Everyone is wondering, in the unlikely event that there are two and only two undefeated teams from BCS conferences in the country come Dec. 3rd, if those two teams should meet for the national championship.

Now, Mike Tranghese will undoubtably not get too upset if Rutgers is kept out in favor of, say, Florida but instead goes to the Orange Bowl. That's still an amazing story.

But this begs a question: if the Big East is a BCS conference, and is treated like all the other BCS conferences, and there are only two teams that are undefeated in those BCS conferences, why wouldn't those two teams play for the national championship?

Either the Big East is a BCS conference, and its undefeated conference champion should be treated like any other undefeated conference champion — and Rutgers get a shot at Ohio St.;
OR
BCS-conference affiliation quantitatively matters less than individual schedule — in which case the strength of schedule should be a factor in these decisions, and a team like USC which schedules three OOC teams that are a combined 23-5 and whose conference slate is 44-39 should get the nod ahead of Ohio St., whose OOC opponents are 24-16 and whose conference opponents are 40-40 — if we exclude Michigan, the Big Ten slate that Ohio St. plays is 30-40).