Boise Championship State (BCS)

Dan Wetzel had a great column on Yahoo! Sports last week entitled “Will Boise blow up BCS?” His treatise is that because of the screwed up nature of how the Bowl Championship Series works, Boise State could accomplish just that feat the BCS was created to prevent–a non-BCS conference school playing in the title game.

In other words, the BCS could actually fall victim of its own design.

Boise State is currently ranked #6 in both the Harris Interactive and the coach’s poll, two-thirds of the corrupt and convoluted BCS equation. If enough of the teams in front of the Broncos lose, Boise could easily move up into one of the top two spots, since, despite its lack of strength of schedule, teams are rarely leapfrogged that high up in the rankings (incidentally, at the time Wetzel’s article was published, the Broncos were #5 in the coach’s poll and were jumped by Virginia Tech, so you never know).

Since at most one of the three SEC teams in front of Boise State (Florida, LSU and Alabama) can finish undefeated, that leaves only Texas and Virginia Tech. Not impossible by any means. Wetzel argues that Boise is in this unique position because they are ranked higher earlier in the season than any of the previous BCS busters.

So far I haven’t said anything new that wasn’t discussed in the Yahoo! Sports article. What intrigued me was how the Broncos attained such a high ranking in the first place, the historical underpinnings. Wetzel’s articles doesn’t explore those.

It all, of course, goes back to Boise State’s incredible victory over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. At the time, many people considered it the greatest game ever played (I sure did). But years down the road, could we be looking back at it as one of the most important for the history of the game?

Think about it… playing and winning that game garnered the Broncos plenty of attention, but the way they won made all the difference. For potential recruits, Boise State wasn’t just a small program getting its big chance, the Broncos were suddenly became exciting, risk-taking. For the voters… well, considering how many of the pollsters admitted that they never watched Utah last year, any game that garners a non-BCS conference school their eyes is a big deal, and no game in recent history has been more difficult to miss. Even if you didn’t see it live, you saw the highlights, over and over.

The increased talent and increased publicity stemming from that game undoubtedly play a large part in Boise State’s current ranking, both in the Bronco’s ability to continue playing at a high level and remain on the voter’s radar. If fate somehow allows the Broncos to make it to the title game–although I wouldn’t put it pats the lords of the BCS to doctor the final rankings so that wouldn’t happen–one could make the argument that the 2007 Fiesta Bowl influenced that result. And if that does happen, you can be sure that those evil BCS bosses will tinker with the system to make sure it never happens again.

And that could be a good thing.

What, you say? How could making a corrupt system even worse be good? It’s a terrible thing.

That it is, that it is. However, the more the BCS tightens its grip, the more the public backlash, the sooner the outside influences (e.g. the government) might finally be able to stuff a playoff down their raspy little throats. And that’s the only way those bastards will ever let a playoff into college football.

Extrapolating, that would make the 2007 Fiesta Bowl a game of extreme historical significance, wouldn’t it?

Of course, Boise State receiving a BCS Bowl or the title game could come at the expense of a perhaps more deserving non-BCS school. TCU is currently 10th in the Harris and AP, 9th in the coaches. The Horned Frogs play in the Mountain West Conference, perhaps the best of the non-BCS leagues, and definitely face stiffer competition (BYU, Utah) than do the Broncos in the Western Athletic Conference. Last year TCU had the top defense in the nation, so the Frogs’ ranking is no fluke. You can bet your last dollar, however, that the BCS commissioner would rather be damned than see two non Big 6 conference schools play in the marquee games–let alone the championshionp–even if they were the only two undefeateds in the nation.

But wouldn’t it be grand if they did?

Alas, We BCS haters have to take what we can get.

At least it would be another black mark (added to the scores already existing) on the BCS’s credibility.

We can only dream.

• December 23, 2009 -- TCU’s Gary Patterson AP Coach of the Year – NCAA College Football (0)
• December 18, 2009 -- 2009 NCAA College Football Bowl Picks (0)
• December 8, 2009 -- Bowl Challenges Set (0)
• November 17, 2009 -- As The Season Dwindles Down… (0)
• October 26, 2009 -- Statement Game (0)