Ok, so I’ll eat crow on this one after I predicted Alabama would run over Utah, the Utes went and proved me wrong and in doing so proved that mid-majors can play with the big boys.

It was a few years ago when another mid-major was headed to a BCS game and was given no chance at all against a BCS opponent.  The year was 2007, the bowl was the Fiesta Bowl, the teams were Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference and Oklahoma of the Big XII.  Boise State was given no chance against the mighty Sooners of Oklahoma, it was supposed to be a blowout of epic proportions, a BCS school would show why mid-majors don’t belong.  Boise State’s 43-42 upset of Oklahoma, four quarters later, would start a whole nother argument, one that would be brought up again in 2009 when the Utah Utes of the Moutain West faced off against the former #1 Alabama Crimson Tide of the SEC.  Again, the same things were said, the mid-majors don’t belong in the BCS and they can’t play with teams from the big conferences.  Well, again, the mid-majors proved the critics wrong once more as the Utes outplayed Alabama all night long in a 31-17 win.  Trust me when I say that game wasn’t ever as close as the score may show.

So, with Utah’s dominant win over a former #1, another argument has risen…does Utah deserve a piece of the National Championship as they are the lone undeafeated team in Division I football?  Don’t think their wins aren’t impressive either, they opened their season with a 25-23 win at Michigan, as well as knocking off 11th ranked TCU 13-10 and dominating 16th ranked BYU 48-24, so this team is not without it’s share of big wins.  Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham wasn’t shy when asked where he’d vote his team, “I know where I’m voting us. I’m voting us No. 1. End of story.”  Whittingham continued, “I don’t know why they wouldn’t deserve that consideration.  Somebody has to explain to me why they wouldn’t.  There is only one undefeated team in the United States of America right now in Division I football, and it’s these guys right here.”

I’m sure, when we start the 2009 season sometime next fall, the arogant so called “experts” will keep their bias against teams like Utah and Boise State and will contiue to say they don’t belong in BCS games.  This is directed towards a certain ESPN analyst for comments they made about Boise State a few weeks ago after the Broncos blew out Fresno State.  They were asked if Boise State deserved to be in the BCS, especially since they were undefeated.  Their response was as biased and, in my opinion, ignorant as I’ve ever heard, “No, Boise State wouldn’t survive if they played in the Moutain West or Pac-10.”  Say what?  Did this analyst forget that Boise State was the same team that went to Oregon and knocked off the Ducks at one of the toughest places in the country to play?  Has anyone looked at the records of the teams from the Moutain West?  So, do they mean to tell us that Boise State couldn’t play with San Diego State (2-10), Wyoming (4-8), New Mexico (4-8), UNLV (5-7) or Colorado State (7-6)?  How about if they played in the Pac-10, they already knocked off Oregon (10-3) earlier in they year, but they couldn’t beat teams like winless Washington (0-12), Washington State (2-10), UCLA (4-8) who was beaten by Fresno State this year, or Stanford (5-7)?  Come on, I know an “expert” with ESPN couldn’t have shot from the hip on that one, I know they couldn’t have thrown out an ignorant statement like that without doing their homework right?

So, here we are again, the BCS was suppose to be the savior of college football, it was supposed to pit the best two teams in the country in the national championship game.  Instead, we now have at least 4 teams that have every right to argue for a share of that championship.  USC after their dominant win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl, Utah with their undefeated season and domination of former #1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, possibly Texas if they prove themselves in a big way tonight against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl and the winner of Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday night in the BCS Championship game. 

So much for the BCS fixing everything huh?

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