With TCU Accepting a Big East Invite, Boise State Is Back At Square One

Boise State could not have imagined that their decision to leave the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) for the Mountain West Conference (MWC) would have been met by such an utter upheaval.

In the time since the Broncos made said decision to leave the "Little Sisters of the Poor" (AKA Gordon Gee's description of Boise's conference mates) behind, the strongest members of the MWC (BYU, Utah, and TCU) have all jumped ship.

Utah accepted an invite in mid-June to join the Pac-10. Shortly thereafter, BYU decided to become an independent in football—with all their other sports joining the West Coast Conference. Now, today, TCU has accepted an invitation to join the Big East conference.

The latter action has to have the powers that be at Boise State scratching their collective heads—essentially, the MWC just became the WAC.

Boise is no longer adding it's strong record and television appeal to a major, non-BCS, conference in the hopes of making it legitimate but, rather, joining a conference that will now be looking to them for any form of legitimacy—talk about getting the short end.

While you can hardly blame Utah, BYU, or TCU for trying to get their shot at an automatic qualifying (AQ) bid in a BCS conference, you have to feel a little sorry for Boise State because they just seem to keep missing out on acceptance.

Seriously, what can they possibly do now? They will be in no better a position in 2011 than they were in 2010.

Of course the MWC will add more teams, but with BYU and Utah now gone,  and TCU exiting in 2012, how many advertisers will be chomping at the bit to see MWC games on national television—in primetime? Better still, what does this mean for the Mountain West's network? Boise might be a media darling, but they aren't a huge draw all by themselves—and no one is going to be lining up to see them play Colorado State, New Mexico, or Wyoming.

Boise State can't seem to catch a break. They're either damned if they do, or damned if they don't and they have to be feeling a bit piled on by this point. Perhaps they've been right all along—no teams want to play them.

The Utah Utes Battle Back to Win The "Holy War" Against BYU

The Utah Utes were favored by better than nine coming into the annual 'Holy War' contest versus the BYU Cougars—in Salt Lake City. However, someone forgot to deliver the memo to the Cougars who, in their last five games, have resembled something very different than the team that was demolished by TCU, 31-3, just six-weeks ago, and they didn't seem willing to get on their knees for the Utes today.

Jake Heaps, the biggest catch of BYU's 2010 recruiting class, has become the leader that Bronco Mendenhall wanted him to be as the true frosh has grown into a pretty good quarterback—one whose future looks bright if his positive trajectory continues as it has thus far.

Despite BYU's inability to do anything offensively for better than three quarters, the Cougar's defense played above average today—holding the Utes to zero points through three and forcing three interceptions. 

Unfortunately for the Cougars, four quarters of football is needed to seal a win and the Utes came alive late in the game, scoring 17-points and assuming a 1-point lead with less than 5:00 left in the game.

BYU was able to drive the ball down the field, getting into field goal range but, with time expiring, the would be winning kick was blocked—Utes win.

It was another "Holy War" for the ages and now, with BYU leaving the Mountain West and Utah headed to the Pac-10, one has to wonder if this annual rite of passage for these two proud universities will remain as passionate as it is now.

College Football: Honestly, The Odds Are Against TCU and Boise State Playing for a Title

If both Auburn and Oregon lose, would TCU and Boise State move into the two top spots?

It's a legitimate question to ask. After all, both Auburn and Oregon are playing legitimate teams this weekend while TCU and Boise State are playing...wait, who are they playing again? Oh yeah, TCU is playing 1-10 New Mexico while Boise gets challenged by 10-1 Nevada.

Listen, there is no need to debate the merits of how worthy either TCU or Boise are where being granted a BCS National Championship berth is concerned because, well, neither of them deserve a shot at the title based on the schedules they've played—specifically when placed up against that of either Oregon or Auburn.

That said, the BCS isn't about strength of schedule—that makes only a small difference where their overall ranking is concerned—so, if Auburn and Oregon both lose, while TCU and Boise State both win out, they should, hypothetically, get the nod—right?

Well, that isn't likely going to happen and you don't have to agree with the math or pour over stats and historical precedent to see the writing on the wall as to why. Just look at the landscape of college football this season, and note the conversations—the BCS big boys never counted on either TCU or Boise State still being undefeated by this point.

Can we be honest about that much?

Seriously, Boise was "supposed" to lose to Virginia Tech to start the year. They were not supposed to win that game, playing in hostile territory, on a national stage, against a Frank Beamer-coached team—no way, no how. They caused a collective jaw-drop when they walked off Fed-Ex field victorious because the naysayers knew the consequence of such an act was another run for Boise State in 2010.

It wasn't a hard record to predict because, to be honest, watching Boise play any team in the WAC is a lot like watching a friend play NCAA 2011 on rookie mode—boring and unimpressive. They are, literally, the best team on the field every week because there isn't one team in the WAC that can hold their water bottles.

As for TCU, they kept defying the odds, too.

Some felt Oregon State might have beaten them, but the Beavers didn't seem to feel that way and, as usual, they proved to be ineffective in a big game—outside of the state of Oregon.

Then there was the game against Utah. "Oh my, TCU has NEVER won in Salt Lake City and the Utes are a very good football team". Yeah, and the powers that be were so solid in their conviction of that game that they left it off the national schedule—it wasn't even offered to 70 percent of the college football viewing public.

Honestly, it seems like the big boys aren't all that interested in letting the non-BCS schools come sit next to them at the dinner table. They want them to be content to catch whatever scraps they drop from their meal so, if either Oregon or Auburn lose their games, there is little likelihood that either TCU or Boise will have enough points to jump over them—"no one wants to see that game, so let's keep it from happening".

Of course, most of this sounds like a conspiracy theory, and there is no way to prove that any of this will actually come to fruition unless the Top 2 teams in the nation actually lose. However, consider this, Boise State opened the year ranked 3rd in the nation, yet they've never managed to get higher than that—despite annihilating every team they've played.

Even TCU has jumped them...despite the fact that the Horned Frogs barely beat San Diego State last weekend.

Is it fair? You be the judge, but it's becoming more and more obvious that there is definitely no balance and, in truth, there doesn't seem to be many people who care if it ever actually is.

Former Texas Tech Coach, Mike Leach, Has One Word For the SEC..."Aggressive"

In case you didn't know it, Mike Leach has a new job as an on-air analyst for CBS College Sports this coming season. He will be relegated to Conference-USA and Mountain West match-ups but I doubt he will ever be at a loss for words.

That said, he only had one word to describe the SEC when asked, on this CBS SEC Preview Show, what he thought of the conference that, as of now, is the toast of the BCS..."It's Aggressive".

College Football: The Mountain West Wants R-E-S-P-E-C-T...Will They Ever Get It?

The Mountain West Conference (MWC), the oft mentioned but frequently disrespected conference in the FBS, has finally gone off the deep end in it's search for that elusive Automatic Qualifying (AQ) bid from the BCS powers that be—good luck with that if this turns out to be your method of getting there.

According to a recent report, offered via College Football Talk, the MWC and Conference-USA (C-USA) are in the very early stages of a discussion that would pit the MWC Champion against the C-USA Champion in a "play-in" game. The winner would be awarded an AQ bid by the BCS.

Okay, first of all, in what universe would a play-in game versus a C-USA opponent be an attractive package for the BCS?...Seriously?

The recent successes of East Carolina and Houston aside, the overall success of C-USA against current opponents that fall under the AQ umbrella is not impressive—at all. As a matter of fact, the conference as a whole sports a losing percentage against the Big XII (0.383), the ACC (0.377), the SEC (0.334), the Big Ten (0.209), and the Pac-10 (0.322). Shoot, they even have a poor winning percentage against the MWC (0.400).

*scratching my head*

Explain to me again how this  idea would be attractive to the BCS?

C-USA might house some great offensive powerhouses in Tulsa, Rice, Houston, and Memphis, but they are far from ready to compete with some of the bigger and better programs of the Big Ten and the SEC—that's laughable.

Admittedly, these discussions are in their infancy and neither side is ready to confidently go forth and present this option to anyone with the power to change things, but the mere fact that this step is being talked about at all puts a glaring spotlight on how badly the MWC is trying to gain legitimacy—they are tired of being the have-nots of college football.

I can't say that I blame them, the Boise State Broncos have gotten more respect as one team in a remarkably unchallenging conference than BYU or TCU have gotten playing in the MWC.

Boise State may have the more attractive record over the last 6-years (bolstered in large part by a 31-1 conference record), including BCS wins over Oklahoma and TCU, but their conference schedule continues to be a joke and their undefeated record at the end of the year seldom houses a quality win over a quality opponent. They play just as many pansies in their OOC match-ups as they do in their own conference—yet they are rewarded for it time and again.

Consider this, the Broncos, under Chris Petersen, are 4-1 against BCS teams that play in a conference with an AQ bid. Those four wins came against Oregon (2-0), Oregon State (1-0), and Oklahoma (1-0). BYU, in that same span of time, is 7-5 against BCS teams with an AQ bid. Their seven wins came against Oregon (1-0), Oregon State (1-0), Oklahoma (1-0), UCLA (2-1), Washington (1-0) and Arizona (1-2)—three of the five losses were against the ACC.

TCU has fared even better, going 7-2 against AQ opponents—including wins over Stanford, Texas Tech, and Clemson. 

Last I checked, Boise State hasn't played the ACC, under Chris Petersen, yet. For that matter, they haven't played a team from the SEC or the Big Ten either—just saying.


Oh, I know...no one wants to play Boise because they're scared they'll get pummelled.  Uh huh, okay. I really wish people would stop making Boise sound so much better than they are because it's getting old.


A large part of the reason why no one wants to play Boise is because they aren't interested in doing a home-and-home series with them. Texas, Florida, USC, Ohio State, etc., don't need to dole out more money in travel than they will get in gate and concession receipts for going out to Idaho to play in a stadium that maxes out at 32,000—gimme a break.

Boise isn't scary, they are unreasonable and seem to forget they play in the WAC.

They play one relevant game a season and the media wants to anoint them as better than the other 119 Division-I teams that play in the FBS—it's pathetic and, personally, I'm tired of it.

Yet, I digress.

The MWC has been crapped on for years now, despite the success of BYU, Utah, and TCU and they are tired of it. Unfortunately for them, they are barking up the wrong tree with this idea as it will amount to a whole lot of nothing if they ever do bring it to the table.

Karl Benson Calls Nevada and Fresno State "Selfish", Then Says "Pay Up"

Karl Benson, speaking to members of the media via teleconference on Thursday morning (11:30 MST), said that the "selfish" actions of both Nevada and Fresno State have put the WAC conference in an inconvenient position and he expects them to pay for their transgressions.

Okay, it didn't happen exactly like that, but that's pretty close to how things went down.

Benson was not happy that the other big names in his, suddenly, even more irrelevant conference—remember Boise State has already defected to the MWC as well—decided to jump ship without so much as a heads-up.

So, what's next for the WAC? Well, according to Benson, his conference will look at both FCS and FBS schools—UC Davis, Cal Poly, and Sacramento State have all been targeted as "potential candidates". According to Benson, any one of those schools "have components that would allow them to make the move if they decided". 

At the moment, though, everything is speculative as it was clear from his comments that he was not prepared for the exodus. He stated, "the other six WAC board members were under the belief that the action taken by the eight schools last Friday indicated a willingness to move this forward knowing the potential outcome would have included BYU and would have stabilized the WAC. On Friday, there was expressed solidarity and four days later there was a departure."

Obviously, Benson lives in la-la land. The demise of the WAC began when Boise State, their most prominent member, decided to move on to the greener pastures of the MWC. That was his first sign that the conference was about to undergo some major changes—he should have known from that point that anything was possible.

The fact that he could be blindsided means that he may have placed a little too much faith in the words of some of the conference's members. After all, in college football, money talks—the WAC isn't offering much in the way of the dollar for schools with bigger aspirations.

Furthermore, once Boise flexed their BCS muscle, it became clear that they had outgrown the friendly (schedule) confines of the WAC—although I'm not sure if they made the right choice by leaving—and they used their current national popularity to gain a spot in a more high-profile conference.

Both Nevada and Fresno State obviously feel that traveling on the coattails of Boise makes them more attractive—especially if you consider Fresno's willingness to play anybody, anytime, anywhere. Shoot,  if the Bulldogs actually start winning a few of those big-time OOC games, they could usurp the Broncos at some point.

In case you didn't know, the Broncos athletic director and president have bought into the idea that they are too good to keep playing one-and-done games with teams—they want the respect of return engagements or else they won't entertain the idea of scheduling a BCS caliber team at all—excuse me, must laugh for a moment—I guess if you keep hearing the chant "they're all scared of you" long enough, you actually start to believe it.

Just a little sample of what the Boise State president, Bob Kustra had to say:

"We're doing a study of non-conference scheduling in Division I football. There is a fairly compelling case to be made that the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 over the years have controlled the scheduling. All the large conferences ... What Gene will tell you, there's an overwhelming number of home games for the big guys but no home-and-home. We've been able to get a home-and-home with Oregon and Oregon State. We want to propose to the NCAA a mandated home-and-home scheduling arrangement for I-A non-conference football games. Why should Boise State go to Georgia, but more than likely they're not going to return it?" (special shout to Get The Picture  for link)

Whatever, Boise.

Get a bigger stadium, sell out more than two home games a season (seating capacity is 32,000) and offer a pot that is worth it to a big school who is likely to spend more to come play you, than they will actually make, then complain about not getting any respect.

Anyway... back to Benson.

He's not going to let Nevada or Fresno get away with their defection without facing a stiff penalty. He expects both teams to play out the 2011 season, since they failed to honor the July 1st deadline for notifying the conference of their intent to leave, as well as pay the $5 million penalty for choosing to depart—a check to the conference is expected to be in the mail within 60 days.

Said Benson, "I wish at this time that I would have made it ( the penalty) $20 million."

Poor, Karl. He's, seemingly, fighting a losing battle and, unfortunately for him, there is little hope that anyone will actually give a darn what happens to the WAC at this point. However, on another note, the University of Hawaii's chances of reaching nine wins just increased substantially—for 2011.

Time to bring back the Haka dance, Warriors. You just reclaimed your spot as the most important program in the WAC:



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• Karl Benson's Tiny Universe Gets Smaller (everydayshouldbesaturday.com)
• WAC commish calls latest departures 'selfish' (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Western Athletic Conference ready to take hard line against Fresno State, Nevada (sports.espn.go.com)

BYU Football Is No Longer Content With A BCS Window Seat

Multiple reports are suggesting that the BYU football program might be ready to take a Notre Dame approach to getting their shot at a BCS berth.

Late yesterday evening, Colorado State University's football department tweeted the following:

@CSUFootball: BYU and ESPN to hold join (sic) news conference Thursday morning to discuss BYU going independent from the MWC conference. Possible 2011 football. 

 That tweet was followed by this:

@CSUFootbal: Schedule could include Notre Dame, Navy, Army, Utah in addition to already schedules games versus Texas Oregon State Utah State.

The information came as a surprise to Mountain West Conference (MWC) football fans who felt that the move by Boise State to the MWC in 2011 would be a boon for their conference—despite the loss of Utah to the Pac-10.

However, that obviously wasn't the case for BYU who felt jilted during realignment talk and now wishes to take the future of the football program into their own hands.

Currently, Notre Dame is the highest profile team with Independent status and the FBS has a deal with them that if they finish in the Top 10, they will receive an automatic BCS berth. BYU is hopeful that they can wrap up a similar deal and avoid the pitfalls of being mired in a conference which does not guarantee an automatic bid.

If this decision by BYU does turn out to be legitimate, it will definitely change the rules a little bit for some of the other teams in the league.

For one, the MWC suddenly goes from being a conference with some legitimate power—in TCU, BYU, and incoming Boise State—to one that isn't nearly as interesting—to advertisers or fans. I mean, honestly, the TCU/Boise match-up looks intriguing the first year or two, but those teams will only face each other once (possibly) and the rest of the league isn't nearly as competitive.

Secondly, the MWC would have looked a lot more attractive with Utah, BYU, TCU, and Boise State in the mix. All four teams are consistently looked upon as potential BCS busters and the attention their play might have attracted on a national level could have eventually led to some consideration of receiving an automatic bid—particularly if the OOC schedules were up to par.

Lastly, what will it mean for Boise if BYU exits? They made the decision to move to the MWC in order to gain a little more respect for their program—as their WAC schedule wasn't getting much. Now they have essentially traded their WAC colors for a MWC schedule that looks eerily similar—offering only TCU as any real competition.

Is that what they bargained for when they signed on?...Doubtful.

At any rate, you cannot blame BYU for getting tired of watching the opportunities pass them by. Utah received a Pac-10 nod over them and that had to sting quite a bit. Furthermore, despite their tougher OOC schedule and slightly more challenging conference slate (compared to Boise), they still aren't gaining any ground with voters or viewers—Boise appears to be the chosen one at present.

The Cougars may or may not jump ship, this could all be a wild goose chase—especially considering the CSU Football account has curiously rid their timeline of the tweet that started it all—but if it's not, then BYU finally has done, alone, what they couldn't seem to do once this off-season...become relevant.

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• Sources: BYU closing in on football independence, joining WAC for other sports (sports.espn.go.com)

With Pac-10 Prestige, The Utes Finally Have The Chance To Prove Their BCS Worth

The Utah Utes are the beneficiaries of the ‘Texas Two-Step’.

At this time last week, the Longhorns, along with several other teams, were on the minds of every college football pundit, fan, and journalist in the nation as they were rumored to be leaving the Big 12 .

However, the dream of a Pac-16 was left flailing in the wind by a last-minute offer by Dan Beebe—saving the Big 12 (now the Big 10?) and leaving the Pac looking for a 12th man to fill the void.

Colorado was already on board, but the Pac-10 needed a team that would not only make sense from a location standpoint, but could possibly offer a natural rivalry for Colorado.

Enter the Utah Utes.

Utah has been on the football scene, nationally, since 2003 when Urban Meyer led them to a 10-3 record. Prior to that point, they were mostly known for their success in both basketball, under coach Rick Majerus, and gymnastics (they have won 10 national titles playing as an independent).

Now they will get the BCS respect they have been yearning for since finishing undefeated in 2004.

The move was a no-brainer for the Utes. The Pac-10 offers more exposure and a bigger paycheck than the non-BCS Mountain West (they stand to see a television revenue bump of about $7-8 million dollars per season). Even still, the question remains as to what will become of their rivalry with Brigham Young University (BYU)? The ‘Holy War’ between the two football teams has been played yearly since 1890 and has a ton of old tradition and passion behind it among both fanbases.

Will it continue or be scrapped or will the two programs continue to meet on the gridiron?

How will Utah fare in their new conference? Well, that’s anyone’s guess.  The Utes have had success in the Pac-10 over the last five-years but they haven’t played the powers of the conference—most of their wins, since 2005, have come against the bottom-tiered teams in the conference (Arizona, UCLA, and Oregon State). They have not played Cal, USC, or Stanford under current coach, Kyle Whittingham.

Even still, it’s a step in the right direction for a program that hasn’t been given a shot to show and prove and all eyes will be on them to see just how real they truly are.

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• Utah Accepts Invitation to Join Pac-10 (nytimes.com)

Sunday Clickables: A Few Links To Make You Think

Congressman Barton says that the recent expansion madness is all about the money. Oh yeah? Well, in other news, water is wet and the sand in Saudi is hot. Barton has long since been a proponent of a playoff and thinks that the Big XII's demise is due to the lack of one. Actually, Congressman, the Big XII's demise has a lot to do with the conference dropping the ball on sharing the wealth.

This article points out the exact reasons the Big XII has fallen like a house of cards.

I read this section and had to pick myself off the floor: "Another party that this is inherently unfair to is the current coaching staff at USC.  Yes, the current head coach Lane Kiffin was on the coaching staff during those Reggie Bush teams, but to say he had a hand in any of this would be a huge stretch. "--is that supposed to be a joke. Kiffin was involved with the offense almost as intimately as Carroll. You think that slimeball didn't know something?...Please. 


In keeping with a post I read early last week from T Kyle King of DawgSports.com the Texas A&M Aggies are looking into a move to the SEC. 

Boise State will be an official member of the Mountain West Conference (MWC) this time next year. That's great for the MWC exposure but not so much for its members as Boise has routinely beat up on them too—go figure. 


USC running back, Dillon Baxter, has stated that both Alabama and Florida contacted him about transferring to their school in light of the sanctions. Baxter reached out to an ESPN reporter to send the following message: leave me alone. I guess, despite the presence of both Mack Brown and Jeff Demps, the Gators are still in need of a good tailback—shrugs. 


No offense to the Auburn team of 2004, but, do you really want a trophy that everyone will still consider USC's at the end of the day? Just sayin'.


The Baylor Athletic Director thinks the Big XII is still viable with 10 schools. It could be, if four of those schools weren't Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Baylor.