BOISE STATE BUZZ FROM ALL OVER, FAIR & UNFAIR, BUT EVERYBODY HAS AN OPINION
Wow, I knew last night's post after the Boise State win over Virginia Tech would cause a stir, but not to this degree. So far I have received more than twice as many emails as I've ever gotten following any post. Thank you for your interest, thank you for your comments & opinions, I could have done without the name calling, but I'm used to it by now. TigerDoc asked if I had a fever that was affecting my brain, in fact Doc, I do. I came down with a miserable cold & I have run a fever off & on since yesterday. Since I couldn't sleep until after 7 AM, I watched some of the morning shows & to no surprise, some of the media had already begun their "hate fest" toward Boise State. On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough said "Boise State beat a middle-of-the-pack ACC team, Virginia Tech, who hasn't been good for years & now we're going to have to hear about Boise being good enough to play for the national championship. Play somebody once & a while then maybe we'll pay attention. Until then, be quiet." One of his co-hosts, Mike Barnicle, echoed Joes' sentiments with "they're a joke, play somebody like they do in the SEC." Who would have thought we'd hear an elitist opinion on MSNBC? I watch this show every chance I get as they have lively political discussions. These two should stick to politics, their knowledge of college football wouldn't fill a thimble. Va Tech was ranked #6 in the Coaches Poll, the highest ranking amongst ACC teams, they are hardly "middle-of-the-pack." CNN's banter about the game was brief & clueless, which is fine, at least they didn't make definitive statements that were obviously incorrect. Mike Greenberg of ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" show asked rhetorically "they win one game, then beat up on a soft schedule & now we're supposed to let them play in the BCS Championship, c'mon." His partner, Mike Golic, got it right tho when he said "It's not their fault the rest of their conference isn't that tough, it's not. Should they be penalized because San Jose State & New Mexico State can't field competitive teams?" That's the heart of my argument, don't dismiss Boise State because they play in the WAC, dismiss them if they're not competitive with the better BCS schools, which isn't the case. Boise coach Chris Petersen is 50-4 since taking the helm, that's competitive by any standard.
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreidt said after his broadcast of the game "this doesn't put Boise State in the National Championship game, but it puts them in the conversation." Honestly that's all they can ask for, to be considered fairly. It isn't going to happen, but they can certainly wish for it. Herbstreidt also said before the Broncos winning drive began "if I had to pick just one college quarterback in this situation to win the game, it would be Kellen Moore." Moore did just what Herbstreidt thought he would, leading his team to victory, throwing the winning score to WR Austin Pettis with 1:09 left.
As to some of your thoughts, they began with "you're a f'ing idiot, are you smoking crack?" There were a number with this basic sentiment but I also received a number of emails agreeing to some of my points, thanks to all who took the time to write, especially Ron, DickH & even KCKrissy. JamesfromIndy, a longtime reader & a pretty smart guy, chimed in with numerous emailers with "they should join a tougher conference." Well it's not that easy, if this springs' Big-10 & PAC-10 expansion taught us anything, it's very difficult to move from conference to conference. Nebraska & Colorado are facing $10 million "exit fees" from the Big-12, which isn't chicken feed. When Boise State got no feelers from BCS conferences, they settled on an invitation from the Mountain West Conference. As I stated last night, Boise State doesn't have a large TV market, have a smallish stadium, making larger schools lukewarm toward the Broncos. Many people complained they "don't play anybody." If you've been here since the spring, you know WAC Commissioner Karl Benson stated how unfair this criticism is since so many larger programs ducked invitations to play Boise State. Sometimes their phone calls weren't even returned. Benson said even when Boise offered a 2 for 1 contract(two games at a prospective opponents home & only 1 game at Boise), they were rebuffed. After Oregon(21-5 the past 2 seasons) lost back to back games with Boise & the memory of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma still fresh in many minds, a lot of schools wanted no part of Boise State. Why do you think the BCS packaged Boise State & TCU, both at-large teams, in the Fiesta Bowl? Matching them against each other protected two other traditional BCS powers from being embarrassed.
To the emailers who said I shouldn't compare Alabama playing WAC member San Jose State to anyone on Boise's schedule because it was like a preseason or tune up game. To that logic, you believe Boise should schedule Va Tech, Oregon State, Notre Dame & Alabama(yeah, like those teams will line up to play Boise) before their conference schedule begins. That means they would play four tough teams right out of the box & then play their tune up games afterwards in the WAC. So that's fair because........? You can't have it both ways. I also bristle at the "neutral field" designation of last night's game. It was played 273 miles from the Virginia Tech campus & 2,386 miles from Boise. The Broncos brought about 7,000 fans while Va Tech had nearly 60,000 in attendance at the "neutral site." The Broncos knew this going in but still signed the deal to play & yet filling their schedule with high quality opponents is still like pulling teeth.
For the emailers who thought I was a "closet Boise State fan" or something akin to that, I'll say this one more time, the Missouri Tigers is my team, that's it. I will root for another team if I have a wager on them. I admit I root a little for Boise State, Utah, TCU & BYU. If they are successful enough versus BCS conference schools, they might force the NCAA to do the right thing & implement a playoff system. Division 1 football is the only NCAA sport without a playoff system.
So what we've come to is because Idaho has a small population, Boise State is a smaller school & they play in a conference that is not an automatic qualifier for a BCS Bowl bid, they should be ignored & criticized. They should be made to play by different rules, penalize Boise State for basically being Boise State. The ACC receives an automatic bid from the BCS & they have compiled an impressive 8-14 bowl record the last three seasons. The Mountain West, the conference Boise State will join in 2011, has an 11-5 bowl record over the same period. Boise State's only real chance to ever play for the national championship is a playoff system & we all know that's a pipe dream, for now anyway. Times change, so do trends, let's not bury our heads in the sand refusing to believe there could be excellent football programs in new places.
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreidt said after his broadcast of the game "this doesn't put Boise State in the National Championship game, but it puts them in the conversation." Honestly that's all they can ask for, to be considered fairly. It isn't going to happen, but they can certainly wish for it. Herbstreidt also said before the Broncos winning drive began "if I had to pick just one college quarterback in this situation to win the game, it would be Kellen Moore." Moore did just what Herbstreidt thought he would, leading his team to victory, throwing the winning score to WR Austin Pettis with 1:09 left.
As to some of your thoughts, they began with "you're a f'ing idiot, are you smoking crack?" There were a number with this basic sentiment but I also received a number of emails agreeing to some of my points, thanks to all who took the time to write, especially Ron, DickH & even KCKrissy. JamesfromIndy, a longtime reader & a pretty smart guy, chimed in with numerous emailers with "they should join a tougher conference." Well it's not that easy, if this springs' Big-10 & PAC-10 expansion taught us anything, it's very difficult to move from conference to conference. Nebraska & Colorado are facing $10 million "exit fees" from the Big-12, which isn't chicken feed. When Boise State got no feelers from BCS conferences, they settled on an invitation from the Mountain West Conference. As I stated last night, Boise State doesn't have a large TV market, have a smallish stadium, making larger schools lukewarm toward the Broncos. Many people complained they "don't play anybody." If you've been here since the spring, you know WAC Commissioner Karl Benson stated how unfair this criticism is since so many larger programs ducked invitations to play Boise State. Sometimes their phone calls weren't even returned. Benson said even when Boise offered a 2 for 1 contract(two games at a prospective opponents home & only 1 game at Boise), they were rebuffed. After Oregon(21-5 the past 2 seasons) lost back to back games with Boise & the memory of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma still fresh in many minds, a lot of schools wanted no part of Boise State. Why do you think the BCS packaged Boise State & TCU, both at-large teams, in the Fiesta Bowl? Matching them against each other protected two other traditional BCS powers from being embarrassed.
To the emailers who said I shouldn't compare Alabama playing WAC member San Jose State to anyone on Boise's schedule because it was like a preseason or tune up game. To that logic, you believe Boise should schedule Va Tech, Oregon State, Notre Dame & Alabama(yeah, like those teams will line up to play Boise) before their conference schedule begins. That means they would play four tough teams right out of the box & then play their tune up games afterwards in the WAC. So that's fair because........? You can't have it both ways. I also bristle at the "neutral field" designation of last night's game. It was played 273 miles from the Virginia Tech campus & 2,386 miles from Boise. The Broncos brought about 7,000 fans while Va Tech had nearly 60,000 in attendance at the "neutral site." The Broncos knew this going in but still signed the deal to play & yet filling their schedule with high quality opponents is still like pulling teeth.
For the emailers who thought I was a "closet Boise State fan" or something akin to that, I'll say this one more time, the Missouri Tigers is my team, that's it. I will root for another team if I have a wager on them. I admit I root a little for Boise State, Utah, TCU & BYU. If they are successful enough versus BCS conference schools, they might force the NCAA to do the right thing & implement a playoff system. Division 1 football is the only NCAA sport without a playoff system.
So what we've come to is because Idaho has a small population, Boise State is a smaller school & they play in a conference that is not an automatic qualifier for a BCS Bowl bid, they should be ignored & criticized. They should be made to play by different rules, penalize Boise State for basically being Boise State. The ACC receives an automatic bid from the BCS & they have compiled an impressive 8-14 bowl record the last three seasons. The Mountain West, the conference Boise State will join in 2011, has an 11-5 bowl record over the same period. Boise State's only real chance to ever play for the national championship is a playoff system & we all know that's a pipe dream, for now anyway. Times change, so do trends, let's not bury our heads in the sand refusing to believe there could be excellent football programs in new places.
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