Boise State's Indignation?

Boise State's Supreme Ruler
The little guys are once again demanding greater access into the BCS National Title Game. Last week, Boise State's president Bob Kustra talked about the inherent lack of fairness in the BCS system for non-power conference schools (ht - fanblogs). Here's the money quote:

"...you would think that when Boise State opens its football season against the University of Oregon on September 3, the dream of a national championship would beat in the heart of every player, coach, alumnus and fan. Instead, there will only be a faint pulse thanks to the constraints placed upon us by the BCS. An estimated 6,000 student-athletes play for football teams that have no realistic chance of competing in a BCS bowl, given the hurdles placed in the path of the non-BCS conferences and teams."

My retort back in April to this sort of rhertoric was "Shouldn't Cinderella have to Earn her place?" I don't care if Boise State does go undefeated this season. They still shouldn't get a shot at the National Title in 2009. If you only play one BCS opponent, that's not enough. No where near enough.

Boise St. Home Schedule:
Oregon
Miami (Ohio)
UC-Davis
San Jose State
Idaho
Nevada
New Mexico State

Boise State Away Schedule:
at Fresno State
at Bowling Green
at Tulsa
at Hawaii
at Louisiana Tech
at Utah State

They had the scheduling flexibility to add another quality opponent, but they elected to play UC-Davis (Div I-AA) instead. It's not like playing UC-Davis in front of 20,000 fans in Boise would be worth more financially than playing a BCS team on the road. So it wasn't a financial issue.

It's unlikely that Boise will play more than two teams next year that would be ranked in the Top 40, but Kustra thinks they deserve a shot at the big banana if they beat Oregon?

If I were to run 30 meters at the Olympics and then lay down on the track, I wouldn't be eligible for the Olympic Gold in the 100 meter dash. That's basically what Boise's schedule is. It's an attempt to declare greatness for an incomplete body of work.

Utah had a strong case for upward mobility last year. They beat Oregon State, TCU and BYU, and they played Michigan (it's not the Utes fault that UM stunk). All three of those teams were legitimate Top 25-30 caliber opponents. Utah was nothing like the sham Hawaii team from 2007. Were they good enough to hang with Florida or Oklahoma? I seriously doubt it. But at least they had an argument.

There's an argument from Boise that playing more tough competition makes it to difficult to make a BCS Bowl Game like the Fiesta Bowl. My argument...if you can't beat three BCS teams (or their equivalent Top 25 mid-majors), then what right do you have to the big BCS payouts? Much less the National Title Game?

PWD