The BCS bowls run on a drafting system of sorts, able to pick which of the BCS qualifying schools they would like to include in their games in a specified order. According to Josh Sickles of the Tribune, the Orange Bowl committee was picking last and had no choice but to take the Mountaineers (which comes as no surprise given the Big East's place in the pecking order of conferences that automatically qualify for the BCS), but they are still excited about the game.
The bowl had an automatic tie-in with the ACC. It also was the last BCS bowl to make its school selection, and West Virginia, the Big East's automatic BCS qualifier, hadn't been picked. . .
"We weren't quite sure what was going to happen with the Sugar (Bowl)," Orange Bowl representative Jeff Rubin said. "Once they finally made a decision where they were going to go, that left us with the opportunity to invite the Big East team, which was West Virginia."