I’m glad to see Boise State’s game against Virginia Tech has been moved to the first weekend of the season. It’s a great nonconference game and a good way for the Broncos to get a signature win to start the season. Will that win be enough to keep them high enough in the polls throughout the season?
— Lance Ponder, Salt Lake City
Virginia Tech clearly is an ACC elite and among the top 15 BCS schools over the last decade. But at some point we’re all going to have to suck it up and realize Boise State is more than just a novelty.
Boise State’s defense manhandled TCU in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Broncos—deep breath, BCS snobs—should be favored in that game on Labor Day night. Boise State is done “proving itself” against BCS schools, is done impressing pollsters by “scheduling up” or winning nonconference road games.
This program is a one-point loss to TCU in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl—a TCU team that everyone (rightfully) fawned over after a breakout game against Utah last season—from a 27-game winning streak. This isn’t just a team with a point-a-minute offense; this is a program with backbone. Or as Oregon coach Chip Kelly told me last month at the AFCA convention, Boise “plays with a purpose.”
TCU and Oregon were Nos. 5 and 8 in the nation in scoring last season, and combined—that’s right, combined—to score 18 points and gain 460 yards in losses to Boise State. Let’s stop giving in to the predetermined nonsense of non-BCS schools “playing up” to the BCS level.
If we use the eye test in every other manner of polling, why not use it for Boise State? I doubt anyone who watched the Broncos in their two biggest games—vs. Oregon and TCU—would think that team couldn’t play with Alabama or Texas. We don’t need a national playoff; we need an honest assessment of teams in weekly polls—with no preconceived notions.
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You said you can’t judge bowl games because motivation might not be equal among the teams playing. Is that your way of hiding the fact that the Big Ten had a great bowl …
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