Salt Lake City Snubbed

Congratulations to the Utah Utes. Utah handily defeated the Crimson Tide to win the 2009 Sugar Bowl. You finished the football season undefeated (13-0) and if a national title must be handed out to Div-I football then I believe you should receive that honor.

The Alabama Crimson Tide were a quality opponent, finishing the year with only 2 losses (the other coming to Florida in the SEC championship game). Yet this just goes to prove my point that teams from non-BCS conferences can compete with and beat the teams from BCS conferences. This was the 4th time that a team from outside the BCS conferences were allowed to play in a BCS bowl and marks the 3rd victory (.750 winning percentage). Everyone likes to point to Hawaii's embarrassing performance in last year's Sugar Bowl, but why not look at Utah and Boise State's victories?

I realize that many will disagree with my opinion that Utah is the rightful national champion but until college football figures out this BCS nonsense, they shouldn't be removed from consideration. Taking advice from a commenter on my previous BCS article, why do we need to crown a National Champ? My only problem is that either Florida or Oklahoma will be given this honor. The thing that seperates these squads from the Utes? One loss.

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With Liberty and Injustice for All...

12-0

With a phenomenal season record like that, you would think that your team would have a shot at playing for the national title. You knocked off several ranked opponents and won not only your conference, but beat your rivals and teams from the power conferences.

Yet the Utah Utes and the Boise State Broncos will not be playing for the crystal football in South Florida on January 8.

Instead, that night college football fans will watch as the Oklahoma Sooners play the Florida Gators in a less than neutral Dolphin Stadium. Their records (12-1 and 12-1) are blemished. I'll be the first to admit that the Big 12 (especially its South Division) and the SEC were the best conferences in college football this year. However, what makes these two one loss teams any better than USC, Penn State, Texas, or Texas Tech (all with 11-1 records)? If these teams had played in conference championships then they too would likely have 12-1 records.

In addition to these snubbed BCS squads, my original point still rings true. Boise State and Utah are UNDEFEATED. I have no reason to root for these squads. I'm a Purdue Boilermaker fan from the Midwest and have never been to Utah or Idaho. Yet I can't help but want to pull my hair out when I see that these two undefeated squads are locked out of the championship. In fact, Boise State will even be locked out of the BCS altogether.

What else can these schools do? They have won every game that they have played this year (something that no other schools can claim). Yet they happen to play in conferences that the NCAA has deemed inferior. To be fair, there are a lot of bad teams in the WAC and MWC. Idaho, New Mexico State, San Diego State, and Wyoming were atrocious. But, schools like TCU, BYU, and Nevada help bring in balance. The SEC and Big 12 are not without their doormats either. Baylor, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Auburn, and even Tennessee were awful as well.

Even if you feel, for some odd reason, that the Utes and Broncos shouldn't be playing for the national title, I think you have to admit that they deserve to be a part of the most prestigious bowls, the BCS. And yet, the Broncos look to be excluded from this group in favor of the ACC and Big East champions. Virginia Tech has an extremely impressive 9-4 record against the stellar ACC this year and the Cincinnatti Bearcats, although 11-2, played in a Big East that was arguably no better than the MWC or WAC this year.

Ultimately it boils down to the same point that I have been making over the last few years. In college football, if the only metric we have for truly comparing teams is wins and losses, then how can teams with better records than those in the championship be denied their shot at glory? To say they can't compete is ludicrous, all you have to do is look at Utah in 2004 and Boise State in 2006. Sadly those two teams won't get a chance to play each other to decide who is the best team in football this year.

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