When Hell Freezes Over. . . . .

When Hell Freezes Over. . . . .

0
Hate to break it to the BCS honks, but your worst nightmare could become a reality in another 6 weeks – a national championship game pitting two non-AQ schools against one another. Boise State vs. the winner of the TCU/Utah game. To the BCS powers, that’s like the Charlotte Bobcats battling the Sacramento Kings for the NBA finals or the Kansas City Royals taking on the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. Funny things is, those would be legitimate championship contests. And that’s exactly what might happen in college football this year. Boise State and the winner of the TCU/Utah game could potentially finish 1 and 2 and play for the title.
The Bowl Championship Series was of course set up to try and apply some degree of objectivity to crowning a champion in college football each year by pitting the top two teams against each other. Prior to the BCS, all the top teams would run off to their pre-determined, big conference champion bowl games, regardless of ranking. Of course the other design of the BCS was to make sure all the big money stayed in the power conferences. No one ever thought the little guys could crash the party. They have though because of their ability to schedule and win tougher non-conference games, which has helped them gain credibility in the eyes of the voters. The irony in the BCS cartel throwing the little guys a bone is that it might actually come back to bite them this year. They might see their entire championship walk right out the door, by way of a system that was intended to prevent the very thing.
C’mon though, how is this really going to happen when the first BCS rankings of the year are as follows:
 
BSC Rankings October 17, 2010
1. Oklahoma
2. Oregon
3. Boise State
4. Auburn
5. TCU
6. LSU
7. Michigan State
8. Alabama
9. Utah
10. Ohio State
Here’s how I think it could happen.
As I’ve said before in other posts, I still don’t buy Oregon as an undefeated team. I think they get clipped once, maybe twice before the year is over. USC could get them, Arizona could get em, and of course they always finish their season against Oregon State in the “Civil War.” This year they will play on the road at Oregon State.
Auburn, LSU and Alabama will beat up on each other and should ruin each others’ chances. The worst case scenario for the non AQ’s would be if Alabama beats both LSU and Auburn and wins out. Although their would-be win in the SEC championship game would not be anything great, due to the SEC East turning out to be mediocre, Alabama would have notched wins over 2, Top-10 teams. That strength of schedule might end up helping them leap frog an undefeated BSU or TCU/Utah.
Michigan State is a great story but they are not going to win out. Most voters recognize the Big-10 is not a dominant conference and will not move a 1 loss Big-10 team ahead of the undefeateds.
Finally, Oklahoma will need to lose. They do have to play Missouri and Oklahoma State still. Then, they will presumably face either Missouri (again) or Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game. That’s a tall order to win all those. If they do, you couple that with non conference wins against Air force, Florida State-whom the Sooners destroyed, and Cincinnati, Oklahoma would have a pretty nice resume and be deserving of the #1 ranking. Again though, I think it’s a tall order for them to win out. Remember, Utah State almost beat Oklahoma in Norman.
While all this hypothetical carnage takes place, I think it’s safe to assume the trio of Boise State, TCU and Utah will produce two undefeated teams. I do realize Boise is gonna have to hang on for dear life because their computer ranking will slip a little each week due to their less than stellar strength of schedule. That said, I believe Boise State is going to be the recipient of the college football equivalent of the life time achievement award. You know that ridiculous award they give out at the Oscars each year. If you’re a movie buff and take exception to that, you can let me know as much but it always just seems like TV filler time to me. Keeping it on the grid-iron, it’s more like the really good but not great, senior QB who’s had a great 4 year career and is invited to the Heisman presentation in New York City. Anybody remember any of those? Tebow last year. Eric Crouch winning it in 2001. Although I don’t really agree with the notion, Boise is going to be rewarded by voters for basically carrying the torch for the also rans for the past decade. They are going to get the sympathetic vote, if there is such a thing, and I think they will play in the championship. And for the record, Boise State is good enough to win the whole deal. They are just going to need help getting there.
So, chew on that scenario – by default, a championship game that will have Boise State playing TCU in a bowl game for the 3rd year in a row. Only this one will be for the big prize. It will also signal the official beginning of the unraveling of the BCS because hell will have frozen over. The BCS boys will see their money and prestige slipping from their grasp and will soon have a gazillion dollar TV playoff plan in place. Let’s see how it plays out.

Matt Nielson has been writing about the college sports landscape in Utah and the Intermountain West since 2010. When he’s not pretending to be a professional blogger, he works full time as a residential real estate agent and house flipper. Matt graduated from Brigham Young University in 2000. He and his family reside in Salt Lake City, UT.

Twitter 

Leave a Reply