After the Utah Utes blitzed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last year (only to be declared the unbeaten runner-up to Florida), there was more clamoring than ever for a national championship playoff to replace the BCS. While I am a strong proponent of this change, I am also a realist. The truth is that a playoff may never happen in FBS (as it is now called) football. The people (university presidents) that make these types of decisions stand to lose too much money to make such a change. The only thing that provides incentive to them is that it is fair, and it's the right thing to do. Neither of these reasons rank high on a priority list that includes money, money, and more money. Therefore, the change must come from within. There is only one thing that causes teams like Boise State, TCU, BYU, and Utah to hit a glass ceiling in the polls every year. It's their conference schedule. At the end of the season, when the polls matter the most, Ohio State plays Michigan every year. This year Boise State plays their regular season finale against a horrid New Mexico State team. There are two solutions to this problem. One of them is an Elmer's glue patch up solution, and the other one is a Krazy Glue permanent fix. Here's what I'm thinking...
The Elmer's Glue Fix
Former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese created this idea for the 2006 season as a way to showcase what was left of the talent in his conference after the ACC raided them a few years back. Tranghese identified his top teams within the conference and then scheduled them to play each other in the final weeks of conference play. The result of the decision was an epic final three weeks of Big East football that had the same feel as the Big East's basketball tournament. By the end of the season, no one remembered the fact that the bottom of the conference was terrible. What fans remember was that Louisville, Rutgers, and West Virginia were all undefeated in November and ranked in the top 15. They also recall the three instant classic football games that ended the season, and most importantly, new member Louisville won the Orange Bowl against the same ACC conference that poached three Big East members the year before. The Big East went 5-0 in bowl games during that season, effectively dominating the final two months of the season. Since that miraculous season, no one has seriously questioned the conference's legitimacy again.
With the 2006 season as a model, the Mountain West could Have Utah, TCU, and BYU battle it out in the final two weeks of the season. High drama and gaudy records lead to TV coverage and media attention, two criterion that have way more to do with poll results than they should. In the WAC, the conference is more of a two horse race. In the same way Michigan and Ohio State have battled for the Big Ten in their final game every year since longer than anyone can remember, is there any reason why perennial WAC powers Fresno State and Boise State can't finish the season against each other every year. Wouldn't the Broncos benefit more from hanging 51 points on a Fresno team that was 7-0 in conference rather than dropping them to 1-2 for the year. Weighted scheduling, as the practice is called, could be the counter punch to the BCS system. If Utah, TCU, and BYU all enter the final two weeks of the season undefeated and in the top 10, why not let a mid-major team play for the BCS National Championship if their last two games were wins over what the BCS ranked as Top 10 competition. This system would work at least once a decade, and when it does, it will leave memories in the mind of college football fans that will hold over until it happens again.
The Krazy Glue Solution
Sometimes, you can get by with beating the system, but there are other times when you have to take the jackhammer to it. While weighted scheduling may seem like a good idea, the only way to permanently crash the BCS party is an all out mid-major revolt. The plan is simple, create a conference that is undoubtedly worthy of a BCS bid. Do you think the Mountain West would get a BCS bid if it look like this...
BYU - currently ranked, winners of the 1984 National Championship, QB Ty Detmer won the Heisman
TCU - currently ranked, 2 time National Champions, alma mater of LaDanian Tomlinson and Sammy Baugh
Utah - defending champions of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, 2-0 all-time in BCS games
Air Force - over 300 wins in only 49 years of football, 39 academic All-Americans
Colorado State - over 100 years of football, 15 conference titles, 6 All-Americans
UNLV - the school is in Vegas...enough said
Hawaii - the school is in Hawaii...enough said (they also appeared in the 2008 Sugar Bowl)
Fresno State - 12 wins over power conference teams since 2000...that's 2 out of 3 per year
Boise State - currently ranked, winners of the 2007 Fiesta bowl, the school has a .704 winning percentage
Tulsa - over 100 years of football, ranked in the BCS as recently as 2006
Houston - currently ranked, former members of a power conference, QB Andre Ware won the Heisman
SMU - 3 recognized National Championships, RB Doak Walker won the Heisman
Try to justify sending the champion of this conference to a non-BCS bowl!
While your browsing the revised Mountain West, note that this is a 12 team conference which means that there will be a conference championship game. You can't tell me you don't want to see Boise St. and TCU play for a conference championship live from the Hula Bowl in Hawaii, or dare I say...Las Vegas! This conference has everything you would want in a power conference. You want Great programs? I give you Boise State, Fresno State, BYU, Utah, and TCU along with the winning tradition of schools like Houston (during the David Klingler and Andre Ware years), SMU (during the Pony Express years), Air Force (during the Fisher Deberry Era), and Colorado St. (under Sonny Lubick). You want great coaches? How about Pat Hill at Fresno, Chris Peterson at Boise, and the bevy of young coaches that would become fixtures in the new conference (Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Bronco Mendenhall at BYU, and Kevin Sumlin at Houston). Heck, the conference features two teams that have already won a national championship (TCU and BYU). The WAC and Conference USA will lose their marquee teams but they will have programs that will be ready to takeover. I would bet that San Jose State and Nevada would surge in a new WAC conference, while Conference USA still has solid programs like Southern Miss and Marshall to lean on, but this is bigger than those two conferences. It's about the opportunity to be included in the BCS party and get the slice of the pie that is so important to everyone outside of the BCS conferences. Someone has to make the sacrifice. The storylines that are put into play here are undeniable. How great would it be to see big time college football in places like Hawaii, Vegas, Dallas, and Houston? The conference is even rooted in two of the largest and most fertile recruiting grounds in the nation (Texas and California). The talent of these schools would sky rocket, and twenty years from now, no one will even remember a conversation concerning their inclusion in the BCS.
(8)Cincinnati meets the (21)USF Bulls at Raymond James Stadium tonight in Tampa. This may be the game of the year in the Big East as these are the conference's only ranked teams mid way through the season. Bearcats quarterback Tony Pike is also holding on to a fledgeling Heisman campaign that can only be justified by an undefeated season. This Bulls team may be more impressive than the 2007 team that rose to number two in the BCS polls, because they have been winning games with their backup quarterback BJ Daniels. Starter Matt Grothe has been the only Bulls quarterback that Big East fans have ever known (he's a four year starter), but the emergence of Daniels proves that head coach Jim Leavitt is stockpiling talent in Tampa, maybe even more than in-state rival Florida State. Where would the Seminoles be if they lost their starting QB, Christian Ponder? Look where they are with him for that matter. Even though Cincinnati is getting most of the hype surrounding a possible BCS title berth, USF has a very manageable schedule and still has an out of conference statement game against another in-state power, (9)Miami. The Bearcats already have some impressive non-conference wins, most notably a road win against Oregon State in Corvallis. Thus, their candidacy for the BCS title has been slightly more legitimized than USF (as exemplified by their top ten ranking). One thing is certain, there will not be a one loss Big East team in the National Championship, so that dream will end tonight for one of these teams, but the Big East title will still be a possibility for the loser. There is also the possibility that neither of these teams wins the conference, as no one knows whether 4-1 West Virginia is an actual contender. Most likely the Mountaineers will be 6-1 when they see USF in Tampa the day before Halloween in their second test of the season (they failed their first one by losing to Auburn). Rutgers can also get back into the hunt, especially if USF hangs a loss on Cincinnati tonight. In conclusion, the Big East is preparing for another exciting finish to the season. Electrifying conference races are becoming a staple of the new Big East.
