This actually made sense to me. It's interesting to think about. Playoff system definitely needs to come about, but it seems like that will never happen. All interesting points though.
Don't get me wrong, I truly believe the standout mid-majors can go out and beat almost anyone, I just don't think they could hang with those teams consistently. Major conferences have bigger, strong, faster talent, even on the mediocre teams. I'll use South Carolina as an example for the schedule. (I have the schedule sitting right in front of me) They play two cupcakes: I-AA Furman and Troy. Southern Miss and Clemson are their other two non-conference opponents - not great, but good teams. Here's their conference schedule: Georgia, Auburn, Bama, Kentucky, Vandy, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida...and Auburn again. Five ranked opponents and the #1 team in the country twice. Vandy and Tennessee are mediocre, but the rest of those teams are pretty talented. Let's compare that to Boise's schedule: Non-conference: Virginia Tech, Wyoming, Toledo, and Oregon State. No one wants to play them, but that's still a very mediocre NC schedule except for VT. Conference: New Mexico State, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, Idaho, Fresno State, Nevada, and Utah State. Nevada and Hawaii have some offensive firepower, Fresno's rebuilding, and the rest of those teams absolutely suck. It's not the same.
No, Georgia WR AJ Green is. Green is my top overall prospect followed by Stanford's QB Andrew Luck. If we're talking Heisman, I'd definitely consider Kellen Moore because he's put up some ridiculous numbers...Moore's a great college quarterback, but he doesn't have the size or athleticism that you look for in a pro quarterback.
I hear you (although I'm cracking up that you picked an SEC team for the comprison, simply because I'm an SEC fan, and have very little respect for the other "major" conferences, and I remember at some point last year getting into a mini e-argument with a PAC-10 fan on this board about the stronger conference).
That's great that Oregon and Auburn are the most talented teams in the country, that doesn't mean they're the best teams in the country. Duke consistently has the most talented team in basketball yet have won a single title in the last what 15 years? I hate the system but the way it's set up TCU or Boise don't have to beat those teams week in and week out or in a playoff and they only need to win 1 game in the postseason but I'm glad to see that LSU grew a sack and did a home and home with TCU. By that logic the Texas Rangers shouldn't have been able to play in the World Series because they play in the weakest division in baseball and loaded up their schedule by beating up on the A's and Mariners. You can knock TCU's schedule and the conference and you can knock Boise's but when schools refuse to play them what are you gonna do? I don't care who you are playing but when you give up 23 points over a 6 game stretch that's insanity. Call it gimmick but it works. They have shut down every single team with the exception of SDSU who is much better then people think and were a fluke play away from beating Mizzou in Columbia. They gave up 10 points to Baylor who has one of the best offenses in the country. You can say how great the SEC is but your not gonna convince me that Vanderbilt or Ole Miss would just waltz into the MWC and steamroll everybody. Hell I don't even think Florida or Alabama would do that. I guess we'll see how good the MWC is next year when Utah goes in and wins the Pac 10 with basically the same squad from this year if they can ever recover from the 40 point loss to TCU. You give TCU or Boise the same resources and the same money that Ohio State and USC have and we'll see who can hang with who. Hell the big teams can even keep their booster money. Like I said I'll take the word of the best oddsmaker in the country over some fan on a message board.
...but mid-majors don't have the resources to compete with major programs. This statement is a giant what-if that's never going to happen.
Which is like a playoff... maybe it eventually happens but it's the reason why a school like TCU or Boise could win the title because they'd only have to win 1 game against a power team. It's the system the crooks in the BCS created and they will have to deal with should TCU or Boise get into the mythical title game. The fact that they don't have the resources make it even more amazing that Utah has twice destroyed Power Schools in BCS games and how Boise knocked out Oklahoma.
It's awesome that we've seen David take down Goliath multiple times in BCS bowls. I was an undergrad at Fresno when Pat Hill said: "Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere" on national TV because no one wanted to schedule them. I couldn't be more pissed that Boise is the elite team in the WAC when Fresno State opened the door for them. I'd definitely root for them in a title game or another BCS bowl though.
They were the first mid-major that really took on and beat the big boys on a consistent basis. Pat Hill really did schedule anybody, anytime, anywhere and Fresno gave all of them a run for their money...especially during the David Carr era.
Till Boise did them in. To be fair first non-major conference team that was good was BYU and Utah was the first one to win a BCS bowl. 1st possible BCS Buster, Tulane in 1998. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/BCS_Buster#BCS_Buster
This year's TCU team might be able to walk into the ACC or the Big 12 and blow everyone out, but they haven't. They beat on Mountain West teams, and there's no way that someone could say they deserve to play in the title game because of that. People hate the hell out of the BCS and the way the championship teams are picked, but there has to be something more than simply opinion. Beating all comers in a major conference is as good as you're going to get. You and Kenny White could be 100% correct, TCU might be the best team in the nation. However, that doesn't give them a bigger right to play in the title game over Oregon or Auburn.
Because then it becomes an argument between Oregon, Stanford, Auburn, LSU, and Wisconsin to see who deserves to make it right along with Boise and TCU. If OU and Auburn lose, we'll be left at the end of the year with Oregon would only have a loss to a top 20 team (assuming a Zona loss), Stanford to a top 5ish team (post Oregon's drop), Auburn to a top 10 team (SC would move up), LSU to a top 5ish team (post Auburn loss), and Wisconsin to a top tenish team (MSU, 12th right now). I still wouldn't vote for a Boise or a TCU ahead of two of those five teams personally, simply because the fact of schedule strength. To be perfectly honest, in that case I'd probably want to see a rematch of LSU and Auburn, but I think Wisconsin would have a strong case having beaten a #1 team this year. Nebraska should be in there too, but their issue is a bad loss, otherwise their (would be) three victories over top 15 teams would be impressive.
It doesn't because they don't play in one of the power conferences that get shoved down our throats. It's actually a quite ridiculous argument that should TCU or Boise be the best team in the country that they shouldn't be in the title game especially if Oregon were to lose to Oregon St who got blown away by both Boise and TCU. If Oregon and Auburn were to lose there is no justifiable way to keep one of them out of the title game regardless of what Mark May tells you. I'm not gonna budge on my stance, if the guy who set the Vegas odds for 30 years thinks TCU is the best team in the nation I'm not going to disagree. It's been a few weeks since I heard him on the radio so I'm curious as to who his #2 is. It was Alabama before they lost to LSU... generally these guys don't have knee jerk reactions but 2 losses by the Tide would indicate they aren't a top 5 team.
I don't think Oregon will lose but I think Auburn will. Then of course you always run into the fun stuff like what happens if LSU wins out and Auburn losses? Do the Tigers leapfrog both TCU and Boise into the title game without playing for the SEC title? If Auburn losses to South Carolina but beats Alabama do they still go even though they aren't the champions of the SEC? I think it's a good bet that one of them will end up in the title game but the biggest threats to that are Nebraska, Ohio St and LSU should Oregon or Auburn lose which of course should Ohio St and Wisconsin both win out how do you logically put Ohio State in the title game over Wisconsin after the Buckeyes were demolished by the Badgers? Then you have the Nebraska argument with them losing to Texas who may not even make a bowl game and struggling to beat such powers as South Dakota State and Idaho. EDIT: Wisconsin is ahead of Ohio State in the BCS rankings so realistically Ohio State doesn't have much shot at reaching the title game.
The people give the power conferences their due because they're better than the mid majors by a significant margin. They SHOULD be considered at another level than the mid majors. And what I said was TCU COULD BE the best team in the country, but they haven't done anything to deserve special consideration. Saying they should be #1 because one guy thinks so is like saying we should being the polls back as the sole judge of national champions. I'm a Big East fan, and I would love to see a BE team have a shot at a national title. But if there's an undefeated BE team, SEC team, and Pac Ten team, then the BE team is a clear third place on the list. And again, if the top mid major teams have a serious problem with something that they know will happen, they should have done what Utah did. Boise State has been playing the same song for years now, yet they do nothing. Big Fish in a little pond means exposure and money, they go into a big pond and they all goes away.
The conference a team plays in should have no bearing, TCU is a very good team and quite possibly would still be undefeated if they played in the Big 12 or SEC depending on who they played and where they played. I have no doubts they'd be undefeated in the ACC, Big East and Big 10. Notre Dame plays in no conference yet if they were undefeated they'd probably be #2 or 3 in the polls even though their schedule is weak. You can't just say you don't deserve a shot because even though you might be better then the teams ranked ahead of you we're not going to find out. You don't know how good TCU is and I don't know that maybe they're just hype but it's ridiculous to say that we're just going to forget you because you don't play in the SEC or Big 10. If they're 1 of 2 undefeated teams left standing they deserve a shot regardless of how much the SEC or Big 12 cry. You make it seem like Utah just decided to call the Pac 10 and ask to join. There was a lot that needed to happen for them to get an invite to the Pac 10 (which oh BTW some schools in the Pac already regret) You are forgetting that Utah wouldn't have even been given a sniff if Texas A&M stood up to Texas about going to the Pac 10. Throw in had Colorado not jumped the gun and when Texas and the 4 dwarves said no they wouldn't have been invited either. The Pac wanted Texas but when Colorado accepted the invite and Texas didn't they had no choice but to add a 12th and Utah was the only logical option because there were no other programs on the West Coast that were worthy of consideration. Boise is still a relatively young academic institution so they don't measure up to the Pac 10 schools in terms of research or in terms of degrees offered. It's not like they can just one day decide to join the Big 12. Throw in that because of location they don't have baseball, softball, swimming or a bunch of the other sports the Pac 10 competes in.
