Boise State: Play the Broncos or pipe down
Boise State beat Virginia Tech 33-30 Monday night in as good a football game as you’ll ever see. And it’s a verdict that will reverberate throughout the season.
Boise State will be favored in every remaining game this season. If the Broncos beat Oregon State in a couple of weeks, Boise State will have clear sailing to yet another undefeated regular season, which would be their fourth in five years.
Boise State wide receiver Austin Pettis (2), far left, celebrates with teammates, including Boise State fullback Dan Paul (47) after he caught the game winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of their NCAA college football game against Virginia Tech, Monday, Sept. 6, 2010, at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. Boise State won 33-30. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Only this time, Boise State might sail right into the national championship game. Which has everyone all atwitter, claiming that Boise State’s schedule isn’t worthy of championship consideration.
To which there’s an easy solution. Schedule the Broncos.
OU and Texas and Alabama and Florida and Ohio State and every other perennial title contender realizes that the two spots available could shrink to one if Boise State runs the table. In years past, Boise State has had to scratch and claw just to get into the top 10; had to scratch and claw just to get BCS-eligible and play in a non-title major bowl.
But the nation has awakened to the fact that Boise State will kick the snot out of you, and the Broncos were rewarded with a No. 3 preseason ranking. Which was well-deserved, after their performance against Virginia Tech.
In a game billed as a neutral field but was nothing of the sort, with as much as 80,000 of the 90,000 fans pulling for Virginia Tech, Boise State staged a stirring rally and won a big-time game in a big-time setting and showed that it belongs on the stage with anyone.
Now the outcries about Boise State’s schedule will only increase. So here’s a solution. Play the Broncos. Schedule them home-and-home. You don’t want Boise State in the national title game? Knock them out of it.
Boise State will play teams. Boise State will play USC or Texas or Georgia or Iowa or anyone else home and home. They’d love to come to your place, so long as you go to theirs.
Nobody much is interested, of course, because teams want to manufacture national titles these days. They don’t want to earn them.
Sure, Boise State plays in a lousy conference, the WAC. And Boise State is doing something about that. Like leave. Boise State will join the Mountain West Conference next season. Of course, the Mountain West is losing Utah and BYU, which is a shame, because the Mountain West with Boise State, the Utah schools and TCU would be a heck of a conference.
But Boise State is doing what it can. Boise State would join the Pac-10, with an invite. Same with the Big 12.
This caste system — your schedule stinks so you’re forever banished to second-class status — is unAmerican.
In basketball, we embrace Cinderellas. In football, we denounce them.
People keep saying that Boise State is 6-5 against BCS conference schools in the 2000s. Yes. And only one of those losses has come in the last six years.
Boise State is 2-0 in BCS bowls. Boise State won at Oregon in 2008 and now has won on FedEx Field against Virginia Tech. They beat Oklahoma in the wildest Fiesta Bowl you’ll ever see.
Boise State should be celebrated, not bashed. You want Boise State out of the national title discussion? Fine. Play the Broncos, then beat them.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Being in a weak conference, it sounds like BSU needs to fill their ENTIRE non-conference schedule with BCS-league teams. Bama, OU, Texas, and Florida play 8+ every year; pardon me if I don’t go overboard congratulating BSU for winning one game.
Any chance we will get a reaction quote from Bob Stoops regarding playing the Broncos?
Right on, qrex……I agree that they indeed looked like a pro team with their final drive to win, and you can say all you want, Berry, about schools scheduling them, but the fact still remains that they, at this point, have NO remaining ranked teams on their schedule….until they can prove that they can “run the table” with OOC games that are on par with other BCS schools, I will not be convinced that they deserve to appear in a NC game. The rest of their schedule is weak…!
Your right. BSU deserves credit for its efforts to climb into the BCS picture despite the odds stacked against it. The strength of schedule argument is a cop out. They are willing to play a tougher schedule, are making efforts to do so, and are winning in their opportunities. Too many people bemoaning BSU’s weak schedule are fans of the name teams who won’t schedule the Broncos, which invalidates their argument for me.
This has got to be just about the most idiotic thing Trammel has ever written, and that’s saying something. Hey Berry, news flash, college football games are scheduled, like, five years in advance. So, back in 2005 or so, OU should have been able to predict that Boise State would be the “team to beat” during the 2010 season, and since they didn’t have the clarvoyance to predict that and to schedule the Broncos they don’t deserve a fair shot at the national championship. Really, I don’t want to sound uncharitable, but that is just STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!
I’m sick of the so-called “national championship” being determined by a popularity contest. The bottom line is that there never has been a true national championship in college football, and there never will be until there is a playoff.
BTW I have nothing at all against Boise State. I think its unfair that they have a clear shot at the national championship with such an easy schedule, but to their credit they have made an effort to schedule tough opponents and to get invited to a more prestegious conference, which will pay off in a year or two when they join the Mountain West (though the MWC’s luster has dulled a bit with the impending loss of BYU and Utah.)
Really, I don’t think BSU has been one of the two best teams in the country either of the last to seasons, but I think they earned the right to play for the national championship by going undefeated.
They go undefeated in a schedule that 20 other shcools could go undefeated in, and we say BSU is the one being cheated?? An Iowa, Missouri or an OSU could’ve won that VT game too, but nobody’s talking BSC championship for them..time to get real people.
Good take Berry, but in reality, the better take would be, if they’re getting to the BCS championship game annually, after 10 consecutive losses by 2 TD+ the madness will resolve itself by the coaches not voting them in anymore…probably won’t even take 10 years..
I love the remark about manufacturing titles instead of earning them, but I wish Berry would stop flacking for Big XII expansion! He never misses a chance to start the realignment tape loop! Also, how is it that Boise Idaho or Cincinnati or even Rutgers can “do the impossible” and Stoops can’t ever get ready for early season games, but he’s such a genius?
I was glad that the Sooners did not play Boise State or VT the first game because we would be 0-1 instead of 1-0. But, I could say the same thing about Florida, Texas, and probabaly a few others who would also lose to either team. The fact is that Boise State is a good football team that is as good, if not better, than many BCS teams right now. I don’t like it, but I’ve got to give them their due.
“Boise State will play teams. Boise State will play USC or Texas or Georgia or Iowa or anyone else home and home.”
Good thing you didn’t include Nebraska in there since BSU turned down a series with them. Why did they turn it down, because it was a 2 for 1. That’s on their AD. If he want to be big time, he’s gotta change his thinking a little. When BSU gets a stadium that’s bigger than a Texas HS stadium, they’ll get home and homes. Until then, there’s zero money in playing BSU so why bother.
Every year they’ve got a 2 game season, pardon me if that doesn’t impress me one freakin bit. Play 6-7-8 top 40 teams in a row and win then I’ll be impressed.
What if OU and Texas Tech were the only teams in a 2-team conference and all of the non-conference games were against WAC teams? Any chance OU goes undefeated 10 straight years?
It’s the pussification of america. Manufactured wins. It’s OU scheduling Utah State. Stoopes says there is no upside to scheduling difficult opponents….uh, yeah there is…remember the fans? All 87k who show up at the field…all those eyes who watch you on TV. Providing a good game for the fans doesn’t have an upside? Bob Stoops, you have become as complacient and entitled as the players you coach appear to be while they are on the field.
What happen to NO EXCUSES? You used to have an edge about you. No more. Lame.
I don’t know how Boise keeps doing it. I don’t look for them to keep it up forever. They are really like a Fresno State which has come and gone over time. Fresno had some good teams! They do have nice uniforms though and I was impressed with their win over VT. Those matte black finished helmets of VT were cool!
Kerry, a more appropriate comparison would be Oklahoma and Iowa State. The WAC doesn’t really have a Texas Tech caliber team. BSU sleeps thru their conference and still goes undefeated.
Boise State, how can you take them serious when they play on smurf turf? I mean it’s crazy to think that is why most don’t take them serious but I’m pretty sure it’s got something to do with it. Here is my answer to the problem…..do away with the smurf turf, get a bigger stadium, and play RANKED teams throughout the year! Okay so they play 2 tough games wooptie…..when you get the BCS National Championship that it saying you are the best in College football, which they are far from it!
There’s been some bold talk this week out of the Boise State camp of supporters. Nobody in a big-boy conference will play Boise. You think that you can beat the Broncos? Give them a call. We dare you.
Nebraska called. Nebraska tried.
In the past year, NU tried to put together a series with BSU; two-for-one, home-and-home, one-way trip to Lincoln. Whatever. It ended up fizzling out. Why?
Because, according to NU Assistant Athletic Director Jeff Jamrog, Boise wanted a minimum $1 million to play in Lincoln.
Geez, no wonder the Broncos can’t get anyone to play them. Pay Boise State $1 million to come to your town? Sorry, don’t want it that bad.
Quoted from here : http://omaha.com/article/20100908/SPORTS/709089803/0
I don’t care one way or the other. Someone asked about this so this is apparently the answer.
Ummm FYI Nebraska tried to schedule a three game series, a home and home and one neutral site game. Boise refused Unless nebraska gave them 1 million dollars something only lower tier fbs and Fcs schools do
Boise State and BYU should come into the big 12.