It has become a common meme in the days after Stanford’s dominating win over previously one-loss Arizona: the Cardinal could finish 11-1, have a top-five ranking and still be left out of one of the five BCS bowl games.

Due to new Rose Bowl rules, the No. 2 team in the Pac-10—in this case, Stanford—does not automatically fill in for the No. 1 team in the conference—in this case, Oregon—if the top squad goes to the national championship game. Rather, a qualifying team (criteria: must have a top-14 ranking) from a non-BCS conference (for example, Boise State or TCU) will get the spot, as long as a non-BCS school is not playing for the title. If one does play for the title, the Rose Bowl can make its own choice, but there is still no guarantee for the second place Pac-10 team.

Confused? Understandable. The essence is this: if the season plays out as it’s described above, and Stanford finishes 11-1 and second in the Pac-10, it will have to fight for one of the at-large BCS spots.

Normally, a team from a major conference with that resume would be a shoo-in for a BCS bowl game. But, as no shortage of media outlets has pointed out, Stanford is a special case. Michelle Smith of AOL FanHouse explains: “Frankly, despite the star power of Andrew Luck, the Cardinal will lack appeal for the simple reason that they aren’t going to travel very well. They couldn’t get more than 43,000 tickets sold for one of the biggest games in this program’s recent history.”

Smith’s reference is to Saturday’s game against then-No. 15 Arizona, where empty seats were apparent throughout Stanford Stadium. With a potential controversy budding—with the caveat, of course, that the Cardinal wins out—fans have taken to social media to promote Stanford football as a whole, as well as to rally support for a BCS bid.

This is not the first time the Cardinal faithful have taken to campaigning. Last season, fans, largely through Facebook, Twitter and The Bootleg (a Stanford fan site), organized a letter writing campaign to Heisman Trophy voters in support of Toby Gerhart. Now, fans want to try a similar tactic this year to promote Stanford’s BCS bowl bid.

“It’s almost like writing your Congressman—we ought to be writing bowl officials and local sportswriters,” said Brian Bird ’03.

Bird, along with friends Wade Gupta ’03, Michael Hawks ’03 and Ryan Martino, own Toby The Van, a large conversion van that, since its introduction at the first game of the 2010 season, has become a staple of Stanford tailgates. The vehicle, which, with a built-in tap system, DirecTV and a DJ-style stereo system, almost has a persona of its own, has been used to promote Cardinal football across the West Coast and over social media—FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook and a website.

Now, Bird said, the group is trying to utilize Toby The Van to rally support around Stanford’s BCS bowl chances.

“We’re committed to do everything we possibly can,” Bird said.

He is not operating in a vacuum.

Avishai Weiss ’08 M.S. ’09 started a Facebook event on Sunday afternoon called “Stanford fans will go to a BCS Bowl.” His goal was for Cardinal supporters to show that they would travel to a postseason game. Within six hours, the event had 1,000 attendees. By Monday at around 9 p.m., 3,000 people had confirmed attendance, with the number still climbing up toward 4,000 at the time of publication. While he isn’t aiming for a specific number of people to participate, he does think that if the number of attendees reaches into five figures that it would “send a message.”

“It’s what Facebook is ideal for,” Weiss said. “I was thinking of doing a website with a catchy name, but I only have so many people in my Stanford network. Facebook has so many people with Stanford affiliations.”

Weiss pointed to posts from a wide array of people—including Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising Julie Lythcott-Haims ’89—telling their own stories of fandom as evidence that Stanford’s support base is widespread.

It’s a sentiment that lines up with the thoughts of Ben Laufer ’12, the football team’s student manager.

“We sold out our allotment last year at the Sun Bowl, and I am confident that Stanford fans from far and wide will rally for the bowl game this season,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

Indeed, last year’s Sun Bowl, where the Cardinal took on the Oklahoma Sooners, sold out before game day for the first time in its 76-year history.

“Even though Norman, Okla., is significantly closer to El Paso [the site of the Sun Bowl] than Palo Alto is, just about half the fans were Cardinal supporters,” Laufer wrote. “Stanford has alumni world-wide, many of whom cannot travel to Palo Alto for every home game, but can—and do—make the effort to attend the bowl game.”

Laufer guaranteed that Stanford would “fill seats and hotels” this season, too, and Bird was equally enthusiastic.

“We’ll be there, no matter what the bowl game is,” he said. “If we have to take a week off work to drive to Miami [for the Orange Bowl], we’re going to do it.”

Correction: In “Fans Rally for BCS Bid” (Nov. 10), The Daily incorrectly implied that, traditionally, the No. 2 Pac-10 team would automatically get a Rose Bowl bid if the No. 1 team in the conference went to the BCS title game. In fact, while the No. 2 Pac-10 team would have been strongly favored for the spot, it was never a guarantee.