John LaPlante sent me the following column by CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd.
Kansas got into the Orange Bowl ahead of Missouri because the school guaranteed tickets. Attendance is still an issue with the Orange, and KU AD Lew Perkins guaranteeing ticket sales probably put the Jayhawks over the top.
As unseemly as it sounds, Missouri could have bought its way into the BCS. The ticket thing is left over from the old bowl system. It's clear that Perkins knows how to play the game. Missouri thought everything would work out. Well, it didn’t.
I've heard that rumor. Of course, Mizzou's fans snapped up Cotton Bowl
tickets quickly, buying up the entire allotment in two hours (16,000
tickets or so). The game is already sold out. That's not the case with the Orange Bowl, yet.
I'm not sure I buy Dodd's conclusion. Mike Alden is a shrewd AD and he
knows how to play the game as well as anyone. If this is indeed what
happened, it's more likely that there were some constraints in place
that kept Alden from making the guarantee.