I just want to say "thank you" to Utah State, BYU, and Boise State for going toe to toe with solid SEC teams in SEC country and coming out with pride and dignity intact, not to mention two victories. Boise State stampeded Georgia, 35-21. It wasn't that close. Utah State beat up Auburn for 57 minutes before falling 42-38 to the defending national champion Tigers. BYU had difficulty putting together drives all afternoon, but the defensive front seven surprised Ole Miss with great smashmouth football, keeping the Cougars close until they could put together one adequate drive to defeat the Rebels, 14-13.
On the field, it was clear to the casual observer that all three teams belonged on the same field as their SEC hosts. Maybe they weren't playing Alabama, LSU, or Florida, but they weren't playing Kentucky or Vanderbilt, either. The intermountain schools were playing solid middle-of-the-pack programs in the alleged and advertised most powerful football conference in America. They made good. One should remember that Utah State is led by one of Utah's former assistant coaches, Gary Andersen, a man who was with the Utes when they pounded mighty Alabama into submission at the 2008 Sugar Bowl. One should remember that Boise State is led by a genius, Chris Peterson, who worked his way up through the football landscape, from UC Davis to Idaho.
One burning question remains. Will ESPN ever reduce or eliminate its Mideast/Eastern bias and BCS bias? Because of its new television deal with newly-independent BYU, the four-letter network went easiest on BYU. Broadcasters and analysts actually gave the Cougars credit for a hard-fought if unglamorous victory. Other western schools didn't fare so well.
The Aggies of Utah State, still a non-BCS WAC member, were given no props. Analysts could only talk from the Auburn perspective. The verdict? Auburn played poorly and will need to put it together next week against South Carolina. Really? Sure, Auburn only had 6 returning starters from last championship season, but as a perennial power in the SEC, the Tigers don't rebuild, they reload. Utah State was starting a freshman quarterback. Figure that. For 57 minutes, the Aggies outplayed and outcoached the Tigers. Poor special teams execution doomed them in the end, but the team from Logan deserves credit for their effort. From Bristol, Connecticut, very little was forthcoming. Still, it's humorous to see and hear the consistency and predictability of the network's biases.
The network's attitude towards Boise State was more lamentable. Fortunately, the game broadcasters had to admit, as a cacophony of boos rattled the Georgia Dome, that Kellen Moore's the real deal at quarterback and that Boise State's line outmuscled Georgia's line on both sides of the ball. By game's end, the announcers were impressed enough to confess that the Broncos deserved a top five ranking. Their initial bias was tempered by observations of the playing field.
However, one must take issue with such ESPN and BCS homer analysts as Mark May, Lou Holtz, and Jessie Palmer for their post-game analysis. While giving Boise State some credit for the convincing win, they griped more about Georgia's lack of execution. The story was mostly about Georgia, its fans, and the SEC race. They barely acknowledged Boise State's miraculous and quick growth into an NCAA football superpower (they had been pounded by Georgia just six years before in Athens), for the Broncos still belonged to a non-BCS conference.
Worse, the ESPN analysts kept dismissing the Broncos' 2011 schedule as easy except for TCU. They implied the weakness of schedule was Boise State's fault. They're already planning for an undefeated BSU scenario and providing reasons from the get-go why the Broncos don't belong in the title game. Who else has heard this song before?
The alleged weakness of schedule is not Boise State's fault. First, they would not decline an invitation into a BCS conference. However, the Pac-12 and the Big 12 haven't come knocking yet. Second, they can't get many high-profile teams to play them in nonconference games, and when they do, it's always on the road, or road and home and road packages. Schools aren't just afraid of the blue turf, they're afraid of the team. All coaches and athletic directors of big programs saw what Boise State did to Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. They also saw what Boise State did to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl a few years later. The gutless reaction? No thanks. Hence, most big-time programs schedule one or two cupcakes before the conference schedule begins, and Boise State is left on the outside looking in and getting blamed for not scheduling up!
One need look no further in the past than last year for a wicked example of Boise State's schedule-making dilemma. Some time back, Boise State and Utah had agreed to a home and away package beginning in 2011. This was before conference realignment began last spring. As a member of the non-BCS Mountain West, Utah had wanted Boise State on the schedule as a heavyweight opponent in order to boost its strength of schedule rating. Boise State was happy for the same reason. Then, the Pac-10 embraced Utah as a new conference member. Suddenly, the Utes wanted to let off the gas. Suddenly, the Utes were looking for nonconference cupcake opponents. They had a problem, though. State lawmakers and alumni virtually demanded that the Utes retain BYU on its annual schedule.
The next target was Pittsburgh or Boise State. Pittsburgh belongs to the Big East, a BCS conference. Boise State is still non-BCS, though improved with its switch from the WAC to the Mountain West. Pittsburgh is also easier to beat than Boise State. Now that Utah is part of the upper caste, it doesn't want to offend a caste-mate. Plus, there's more to gain from beating a BCS team on the road than beating a non-BCS team at home. Also, there's more to lose from falling to a Mountain West foe than a Big East foe. The Utes' loss in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl last December, 26-3, served as a reminder of how tough Boise State actually is.
Utah cancelled the Boise State series. We know why. Unfortunately, the Broncos were left swinging in the wind. Having Utah on the schedule in 2011 would have helped Kellen Moore's senior campaign, both for the Heisman and the title game. Instead, he and the team get to be subjected to insults for the weak schedule it refuses to upgrade. The whole thing is so pathetic and sad that it is, in fact, funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment