Gordon is Grumbling
Yes, it’s official sports fans, the 2010-11 college football season is ruined already. Only this time, it’s not the BCS system or the pathetic cupcake games in week one ruining our fun. No, this time it was the most important game in week one that ruined the season for both fans and teams. Yes, it’s September 10th, and we have ourselves a team guaranteed to play in the National Championship game. Thanks to Virginia Tech deciding that they didn’t want to show up until the second quarter in their 33-30 loss to Boise State, the Broncos are 99 percent guaranteed to finish the season undefeated and continue on to play in the BCS Championship game, and as a college football fan, that really pisses me off. How sad is the state of the sport when one of the spots in the Super Bowl of College Football is filled before conference play even starts?
Before I start my little rant here, let’s get something straight. Boise State is a good team. Boise State is a very good team. But is Boise State a National Championship team? How the hell should we know? There is one thing that we can guarantee at the end of every single season, and that’s the fact that the two teams that are playing for the National Championship have survived 11 or 12 games against a good amount of quality opponents and deserve to be there. This year, we will have a team playing for the trophy that has played one and a half games the entire season. Boise State’s win over Virginia Tech was impressive (besides the fact that they were handed a 17-0 lead and tried to give it back in the second half). But aside from a hideously overrated Oregon State team on their schedule, that’s all folks. For those of you who aren’t convinced that Boise State plays inferior opponents, let’s run down the rest of their schedule. @Wyoming, vs. Oregon State, @New Mexico State, vs. Toledo, @San Jose State, vs. Louisiana Tech, vs. Hawaii, @Idaho, vs. Fresno State, @Nevada, vs. Utah State…you’ve got to be kidding me right? That’s PATHETIC, and we are going to reward this team for playing this schedule with a Top-2 ranking. Is it really proving anything to anybody if you can beat New Mexico State and Toledo by 45? Boise State’s strength of schedule to begin the year was ranked 86th, and that is sure to fall into the mid 100’s as soon as Oregon State lays a goose egg in the Pac 10.
“But Gordon, it’s not Boise State’s fault that they play these teams; they just play who is on their schedule!” Actually, it is their fault. Nothing drives me crazier than the fact that Boise State had a solution to their problems during this whole conference juggling debacle. They could have followed in the footsteps of Utah and BYU, who have both decided that they won’t get any real respect until they play the big boys. What was Boise State’s solution?? They joined the Mountain West Conference…I’ll repeat that. THEY JOINED THE MOUNTAIN WEST! After Utah and BYU both leave after the end of this season, the MWC is sinking just as fast as the WAC. Boise State took the coward’s way out, and they are going to be laughing their way to a top 10 finish every single year.
In case anybody is wondering, this is exactly why we have the BCS system. Our only hope is that the computer will take a look at the SOS of this team and penalize them in the rankings. Otherwise we just have to pray that two other teams go undefeated and Boise State ends up with the short end of the straw. After all, who really deserves to play in the National Championship game? A 10-1 Miami or Alabama with top 15 schedules, or a 12-0 Boise State after beating little sisters of the poor 10 times in one season. There are only a couple of other chances the season could be saved. First, two other teams could go undefeated (and since I’m willing to bet my life savings that Texas and Alabama will not go undefeated, that’s not going to happen). Second, one of the Division III-caliber teams that Boise State plays could shock the world and become a Division I team for the first time in their lives and beat them. Finally, the BCS could save us all the misery and drop Boise State down in the rankings for playing nobody. It’s time for college football to take a stand. If you want to be taken seriously, PLAY SOMEBODY! Until then, we don’t want to hear your Virginia Tech-basketball-type whining.
RyanKantor.com 
I was going to grill you on this post. I was going to tell you that Boise State is undefeated in BCS bowl games. They beat a Rose Bowl Oregon team last year. They went undefeated in 2008 and didn’t get into the BCS. In 2008 they didn’t even get into a decent non-BCS bowl. They played in the Poinsettia bowl. So finally, after 4 years of great football led by premier NCAA football coach Chris Peterson they’ve finally gotten some recognition and they deserve it.
But now that Virginia Tech lost to James Madison it’s all probably irrelevant. Their big win might be ruined. Sure, VT could recover, win 9 games and win the conference, but it sure doesn’t that likely. So even if they run the table they may not get the opportunity to prove that they’re the best in the nation.
I have to totally disagree with you about the conference shake up issue. You said they did nothing about it…THEY MOVED TO A STRONGER CONFERENCE! Do you want them to move to the SEC? The Pac-10 invited other schools that met their academic standards.
The Mountain West, while maybe not the best conference in the nation is much better than the WAC, especially when Fresno St and Nevada leave the WAC and join the MWC.
TCU, Air Force, Wyoming, Nevada, and Fresno St will be better than everything that’s left in the WAC. That’s not even mentioning that they’ve been stepping up their non-conference schedule.
Boise St doesn’t need to join a juggernaut conference, because they’ve only had success over the last 7 years or so. It’s not like a long historic program.
They’ve done everything right, but it probably doesn’t matter now that VT lost to James Madison University.
I’v said it once Ryan, and i’ll say it a million times defending my article. WHAT THE HELL DOES THE LAST 5 YEARS HAVE TO DO WITH THE 2011 SEASON?!?! whoopdy doo! they went undefeated in 2008. whoopdy doo! they beat Oregon last year. ABSOLUTELY NONE of that is going to help them get to a National Championship game THIS YEAR! So when people come and ask you “ok, why does Boise State deserve to play in the National Championship game?” are you going to say, “well they’ve been good the last 5 years and went undefeated in 2008”? HELL no. you’d get laughed off the BCS commission. and as to your remark about the “great” Mountain West…WAKE UP RYAN! this is the third time this week you’ve tried to justify Wyoming, Fresno State, Air Force and Nevada as viable teams! Since when has ANY of those teams been good??? I’v got some fun facts for you. Last time Fresno State beat a ranked team, 2002. Last time Wyoming beat a ranked team, 1999. Last time Air Force beat a ranked team, 1998. Last time Nevada beat a ranked team, NEVER!. Here’s another new flash. Those ranked wins WERE ALL AGAINST EACH OTHER! you wonder why these teams are considered good?? because they play the SAME GARBAGE TEAMS that Boise State plays, and they go 10-2. And all of the sudden we’re supposed to think they’re good Ryan? is Fresno State a good team for beating NOBODY? is Nevada a good team for beating NOBODY? HELL NO! wake up and smell the roses Ryan, just because you’re record is high, does not mean that you are a good football team. Look past the records and realize that besides TCU, that “good conference” is absolute crap.
Interesting facts there. The Mountain West is still better than the WAC, and I applaud them for doing what they could to stregthen their schedule. The only other thing they should have done was play a 3rd strong out of conference them. Maybe they could have played a 13th game @Hawaii.
I’m not saying the MWC is awesome, just better than the WAC.
I’m not saying Boise should be in a nat’l title game because they got screwed in ’08, I’m saying it’s not like they take advantage of a easy schedule every year. Generally their bad conference tie-ins and weak schedule have hurt them a lot.
Ryan, they do take advantage of their weak conference tie-ins every year. There is a reeeal easy solution to their problem, and it wasn’t to join the Mountain West. If you want respect, become independent and make up your own schedule every year of whoever the heck you want. BYU just did it, so why can’t Boise State???
That’s silly. You know they don’t have the finanical stability to do that.
Don’t have the financial stability?? It would cost them 5 million dollars to leave the WAC. They make that in the first half of a home game. Not to mention the fact that they made about 25 million from their bowl game last year.
They have a tiny stadium in Idaho. They’ve only been good for 7 years or so. They don’t have a brand like Notre Dame. Becoming independent would be a risky move, and probably too much so. BYU is being questioned for their decision and they’re a much bigger brand which a much longer span of success. They have a huge following due largely to the religious aspect of their university, something Notre Dame also has that Boise State does not. I don’t think that was ever a realistic idea. Boise scheduled the ACC’s toughest looking team in an essential road game and won. They scheduled the Pac-10’s best team last year and won. They are doing what they can.
Thanks for contributing this article to our blog.
Although you have some information, your ignorance of a few things shows. Is it Boise States problem that no one will agree to play them; especially at home. They have been seeking big opponents for years to answer the question people not unlike you have…they system created a Boise State, now the system has to deal with it. Show up, play them, beat them….repeatedly and all questions are answered. Simple.
Thanks for popping in Neil, but you missed the point about “playing the big boys” completely. Boise States Non-Conference schedule is not what is being called into question here. They always put “a big team” on their schedule every year, and they do a good job of challenging/beating them. Thats not the issue. The issue is the conference that they are in. Facing one big team and 10 cream puffs a year isn’t enough to hoist them into National Championship conversation. As to your other point, I don’t buy for a second the fact that nobody wants to play them. If week 2 of this season showed you anything, its that big teams are willing to go up against big teams. Penn State is willing to Travel to Alabama, Miami is willing to travel to Ohio State, Florida State is willing to travel to Oklahoma, but your telling me that they wouldn’t be willing to travel to Boise State?? Boise State plays respectable non-conference games every year, so people obviously aren’t afraid to play them. You don’t need to play a schedule of superstars to become respectable. Just respectable teams.
The only BCS teams Boise State has been able to get to come to Bronco Stadium in the last 5 years are Oregon and Oregon St.
They’re still a small school.
Can you imagine Bama traveling to Boise for a road game?
Actually I didn’t miss the point. The reams you are talking about are not willing to play in Boise, AND they are not willing to play Boise. VT was not willing to Play in Boise next year, but would only Play Boise this year in a location of Vts choice. Boise’s AD tries every year to get the big boys, and the big boys won’t play. If you had 15-20 years of Boise State history and understood where they came from, how they showed up, and why, then you would understand exactly why they are where they are. The BCS basically had no choice because it’s that very system that created this mess. Boise played by the BCS rules, and even tried to bend over backward to prove their worthiness from within the conferenece that they are in. I appreciate you are trying to have a conversation. If you want to lead the conversation, then know more facts and getthe history. I’m using an iPhone so I will be less detailed, but I’m telling you that you need more facts.
This is a very complicated issue with no clear answer/solution. Nevertheless, here are the conclusions I have reached:
-Boise State is legitimately trying to create a tougher schedule for themselves
-Moving to the Mountain West is not a huge step up, but it helps a little bit. Moving to any other conference wasn’t really in the cards (at least for now), and becoming independent wouldn’t be the best thing for a school of that stature.
-While I first want to agree with Gordon and say that Boise State doesn’t really deserve to play for the National Championship, the more I think about it, the more I think they are deserving. Every time they do have a good team on the schedule, they win (VT, TCU, Oregon, Oklahoma). I know Gordon will bring up the argument of past years not mattering in regards to this year, but in all honesty (and this is not necessarily a good thing, IMO), they do. Why do you think Boise State was a preseason #3? Because they had a great year last year. Why do you think Bama was #1? Because they’re the defending National Champs. Past years do matter, whether you like it or not.
Dammit I love you Neil haha. For the record everybody this is the type of conversation that I hoped that my articles would bring. I see where you are coming from Neil, they do play most of their non-conference games on the road. Part of what spurred this article from me was what happened just earlier this year with Nebraska. Boise State and Nebraska had agreed to play each other in a home and home and Nebraska offered to pay Boise State 900k for the game. Boise State declined the game and demanded 1 Million from the Huskers. Nebraska said 900k take it or leave it, we don’t need the game that bad, and Boise left it. I understand that they play a lot of their games on the road, but lets not forget that Boise State makes a lot of money from playing those big name teams on the road, and makes no money from playing them at home. (and no, i’m not saying that Boise State would not accept those teams coming to play in Idaho because they wouldn’t be getting paid)
Boise is winning. Big teams want to low ball them. They deserve to be paid like everyone else. Do you know how much CO got paid? Check and you will see my point. The risk for Alabama was a loss to Boise. Do you realize the ratings Boise gets? Do you know what rating records were broken because Boise was on TV? Big schools have a lot to lose if they play and lose to Boise. Why ate you mentioning TCU’s ranking? The BCS screwed themselves last year . Rather then playing BSU against Florida in the Orange Bowl and playing TCU against Cinci, they put two non BCS schools in the same game. That was a choice they made. They had an opportunity to clear this up, but backed off. Whether Boise had won or lost against FL last year it would have created a clearer picture for the rankings coming into this season. Win, loss, small or large margin would clear the debate. Did Boise make that choice or did someone make it for them?
Btw- I apologize for my typos. I’m terrible on the iPhone touch screen, and I am on and off airplanes sneaking in quick comments in the debate that will last until BSU gets an L…and longer. One more thing. Every big game BSU has had in recent years they’ve won. So, either the polls have been right about Oklahoma, TCU, Oregon (twice!), and VT or all of those teams were overrated. And in that case TCU and Oregon should not be in the top ten now. Who did the big boys all play their first week?….teams they were certain to beat, not a team they know is capable of taking them out of the bowl run on day one! Having said all of that, BSU will lose at some point. The Colts lost, Dallas lost, Miami won! It’s football!
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