By Brian Murphy
bmurphy@idahostatesman.com
Boise State's current conference (WAC) and its future conference (Mountain West) had a solid opening weekend, including impressive victories by the Mountain West's current "big three."
Utah knocked off No. 15 Pittsburgh in Salt Lake City on Thursday night. BYU edged Washington in Provo, Utah on Saturday. Then TCU — the only one of the "big three" that will remain when Boise State enters the league next year — beat Oregon State outside Dallas on Saturday evening.
That's three victories against BCS-conference teams.
Fresno State, like Boise State a current member of the WAC and future Mountain West team, added to the total with a 28-14 victory against Cincinnati, the two-time defending Big East champions.
It's too bad the Mountain West is losing Utah or BYU because with them, plus Boise State, the league would have been able to make a very compelling case for automatic qualification status in the BCS.
No. 3 Boise State opens its season against No. 10 Virginia Tech on Monday night in Landover, Md.
Note: Utah now has 17 victories against BCS teams since 2000. Fresno State is second with 16. Boise State has six such victories (Iowa State, Oregon State (2), Oregon (2) and Oklahoma) in that time.
Other winners:
WAC: Idaho, Louisiana Tech and Nevada beat FCS teams.
MWC: Air Force, San Diego State and Wyoming beat FCS teams.
Losses:
WAC: Hawaii had a good showing on offense against USC in a loss. Utah State played Oklahoma to the wire in Norman, further evidence that the Aggies could be a breakout team this year. San Jose State was blown out on the road against Alabama.
MWC: Colorado State dropped a 24-3 decision to in-state rival Colorado. UNLV lost to Wisconsin. New Mexico was pummeled by Oregon 72-0.
Totals:
WAC: 4-3 (1-3 against BCS teams; 3-0 against FCS teams)
MWC: 6-3 (3-3 against BCS teams; 3-0 against FCS teams)
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Heh
Interesting to see that both conferences either played up to BCS conferences or played down to Div 1-AA teams. No middle ground scheduling on opening day. Just thought that interesting.
Oregon
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! New Mexico could probably easily be put in the WAC of football but still, wow!!!
Oregon
Even if New Mexico were put in the WAC, if you were there, you will still finish second, just like last year and the year before.
Oregon....
scheduled down from last year, to keep their hopes alive past week 1...
Utah and Fresno State have
Utah and Fresno State have played 3x as many BCS schools than BSU in the same time frame, but BSU can't find any BCS schools to play?
Pathetic!
BSU fans will be crying when, at the end of the season, there are two other undefeated or one loss teams ahead of them in the BCS standings. Here comes another game vs TCU!
Jockitch
Thanks for your inciteful input, jockitch, errr sorry I meant jocdoc....
If your screen name is an
If your screen name is an indicator of your age then your mom should be calling you in for breakfast any minute!
Hey jockitch, please dial
Hey jockitch, I suggest you use liberal amounts of Lamisil AT.
I can tell that you were
I can tell that you were educated in Idaho, maybe at BSU?
Ew, good come back! I can
Ew, good come back! I can tell you almost made it through junior high. Oh... my dad can beat up your dad.
Its not that hard to figure out
Anyone that has any type of brain could figure this problem out. BCS teams only want to play non-BCS teams they are pretty sure they can beat. It is not that hard to figure out. If a BCS team loses to a non-BCS team it is a huge hit on their rating.
That is why it is very hard for BSU to play against any BCS team. It is too big of a risk for them. It's a double edged sword. No one will give BSU credit for its wins until they prove themselves against the BCS. But because BSU is as good as they are no BCS team will play them.
That is one of the reasons BSU had to move to the MWC. Although it is still a lower conference BCS teams are more likely to play against us there. It is not as big as an insult as losing to a WAC team (in their eyes).
Is that why BSU balked on
Is that why BSU balked on playing Nebraska? They tell us it was because Nebraska wanted a 2-for-1. I think that BSU is just afraid to step up and take some of their own medicine. When things (the schedule) don't work out for you, you can do one of two things. You can try harder (take Nebraska's deal) or you can whine about it. If BSU wanted to prove themselves to be above and beyond the others, they would have taken the deal.
So I guess you know...
ALL the details of the offer? Maybe the money wasn't right....Maybe the OUT clause was stupid (remember when WA signed a H & H..BSU went there then they backed out on the trip here)...Maybe the dates didn't work (we have BYU for 4 years and Utah for 2)..Lots of reasons why it may not have worked..but of course, a know it all like you has the answer.....laughable..
joc, you are really
uninformed.......
Do some research on the Nebraska 2-1 offer, the initial talks of a one-and-done for 2011 and why Nebraska pulled the plug.
If you need some help, let me know.
Yep
Yea, and they didnt do that by playing AT virgina tech??? Grow up loser.
True.....
and Fresno is below .500 vs them and NO BCS bowls.. Real smart, eh? He-ll, they can't even win the WAC...
If you were a BCS school...
Would you schedule Fresno St, San Jose St, Utah St, or Hawaii over a game against Boise State? Of course you would. Generally, those other teams are going to get beaten pretty solidly. That's why teams like Alabama and USC schedule them. Fresno St's win against Cincinatti just proves that the Big East is a joke of a conference.
With Boise State, there is a good chance you lose. The risk for that possible loss is too great. That's why Boise State can't schedule a "good" team. If the "good team" loses, their aspirations for a NC have been shot down.
Utah State
Can you imagine that? They played the Sooners right up to the end. Good job Utah State! If there is such a thing as a moral victory this has to be it.
Utah State and Hawaii
played well against the big bad BCS programs. Nice win for Fresno as well, they have Ole Miss and Illinois left, could they break into the top 25 this season?
Doubtful
We have yet to see how good Cinci will be this year. They lost their coach, and a lot of their team. That's why they are unranked to start the season. Illinois is terrible (which hurts to say as an alum), and Ole Miss just lost at home to FCS Jacksonville State.
Poor joc
It must really chap your cheeks that BSU will be playing in front of 80,000 plus at FedX field, against a Top 10 team, with national championship implications riding on the outcome.
Have fun watching that rerun of Desperate Housewifes, while the rest of the country enjoys some top-notch football.
Yeah tfunk...
and the pressure increased even more. At a QUICK glance, I think only 2 top 25 teams lost, with 1 of those losses vs another top25 team. Also, some teams just outside the 25 bubble won. WE HAVE to win or could slide a ton, depending on how the game went. No room for error at all. Granted, pretty soft schedule around the 25 but W's are W's come vote time.
funky-t
I am a huge footfall fan and will be watching the game just like you.
I will say that the stadium still is not sold out and 75K of those 80K fans are for VT!
Hell, Michigan played a nobody yesterday in front of nearly 114,000 fans in the Big House. Michigan will sell out EVERY game whether they have a good opponent or not. What is BSU's excuse?
Common sense
Once again you seem to have a common sense problem. Look at the size of Boise and the surrounding cities compared to these other teams’ areas (Michigan in your example). Also there are a reported 100,000 VT fans that live in the DC area alone. Now include that Virginia is not that far away. BSU fans have to travel across the entire U.S.
Boise (and Idaho) have
Boise (and Idaho) have similar populations as the Nebraska Cornuskers do. Nebraska has sold out every game for decades.
BSU... one, maybe two "events" per year.
Clemson university sits in a town that has a smaller population than their stadium capacity and they sell out as well.
Common sense would dictate that other teams sell out when they are:
Not ranked as high as BSU
Have similar populations
Have larger stadiums
Play a poor opponent
Have worse economies
Have higher ticket prices
And all your examples...
are Schools/Teams with 15 year D1 history right?....Is it common sense to compare schools with Alums, fans, with 60-100 year history/tradition with a 15 year one? Again, laughable...
lack of common sense
Lack of common sense to think that BSU has any sort of tradition. Heck to even call them an educational institution shows a strong lack of common sense.
And really stupid...
is to throw a comment like that in response to a response about a football post....LOL
Again, joc, do some homework
Nebraska played football almost 100 years before they sold out (the streak started sometime in the 80's)regularly.
BSU football had 3 straight years of "sell-outs" until last year.
Clemson Alumni DO out-number the entire population of the State of Idaho.
Really dude, you need to educate yourself.
Do you even put any thought...
... into your posts? Nebraska has a population of 1.8 million, and it has only one D-I FBS program. The combined population of the Lincoln and Omaha MSAs is 1.1 million people. That's 1.1 million people within a 1 hour drive of the stadium. Not only that, but they have been a University for more than a century, which means that they have an enormous alumni base to draw from.
On the other hand, Idaho has only 1.5 million people (17% lower), and the Boise-Nampa MSA has only 600,000 people (barely over half of Lincoln + Omaha), and has to split that fan base with the University of Idaho. And BSU has only been a 4 year school for 40 years, which means that their alumni base is tiny by comparison.
The other piece of your argument that is silly is that Boise State hasn't sold out all of it's games. While that is technically true, their average attendance last year was 32,782, and their average attendance the year before was 32,275. Given that the capacity of Bronco Stadium is 33,610, that means that last year they AVERAGED fewer than 900 seats short of a sellout, and fewer than 1,400 short of a sellout the year before. Hardly worth worrying about.
Maybe you missed it
But the estimate is 86,000 (as of yesterday there were 1,500 tics left) with BSU fans at roughly 15,000. TCU just played OSU in their own backyard at the Cowboy palace and the game drew 46,000.
You call yourself a football fan and then want to compare Michigan and Boise State? Lets see Michigan started playing football in 1879 (the state of Idaho became the 43rd state 11 years LATER), Michigan football reported a profit (according to Forbes) of $34M last year (the entire athletic budget at BSU $25M). The number of Michigan alumni almost (but not quit) out number the population of the state of Idaho...............
And they didn't play a "nobody", U Conn is a Big East team and was favored by many to win the game
What's YOUR EXCUSE?
BACKYARD
Yes, only 46000 at the game. However, that's pretty good for a couple of reasons. First, its more that what TCU's stadium would hold. Second, it was at Jerry World, a very, very expensive ticket. TCU's attendence continues to get better every year. Its a slow process because this is Dallas Cowboy land. Most people, unfortunately, don't care about TCU because they went to other Texas schools ( Tech, UT, A&M, Baylor, Houston..) It will improve each year...hopefully.
Winning Fixes/Improves Many Things
Just keep winning..Like 110 in 10 years like we did. It fixes stuff like that.
Congrats on your win. Your resolve was excellant!
University of Idaho... “TIRED OF LOSING? CALL 1 800 BIG SKY”
Boise State University Broncos - 51
WAC wannabe, aka vandul lowlife - 17
I da hoe vanduls OH NO! YOU SUCK AGAIN!
The Corso "curse"?
Maybe it's a good thing Corso picked VA Tech yesterday on GameDay. He also muttered something about BSU not deserving of an NC game. Oh, okay ... with a current record of 0-0, Lee's got it handled.
This was on the same show where he picked Oregon State over TCU by 3 TDs. Entertaining, yes. Bias against the one-time little guys and now big-party crashers, definitely YES!
Razor
Yeah I saw that and he is a dom-azz so is that guest speaker they had. "VT all day, BSU can't handle their power" or something like that. Sorry your frat is being exposed the West can play also.
Old saying
You don't hear this said too much any longer ... mostly because vinyl is obsolete. Didn't much of that commentary come off sounding like a "broken record"?
[Edit] Also, I cannot remember if GameDay included a Cincinnati-Fresno State pick. If they did, I hope it was Cincy. Great job by Fresno last night. The MWC is going to be just fine.
Yeah....
and the announcers (at least 1 of them) from the OKSt game picked VT....said we couldn't handle their 2 backs and their physicality...
More, more, more
Same old broken record. BSU couldn't handle TCU's physicality last time, either, huh?
Does JocDoc know the Kid?
If you haven't heard this
It's pretty cool
http://regrow-healthy-hair-now.com/bronco-believing-boise-state-vs-virginia-tech-the-balding-eagles-song
joc, do not listen, your head will explode!
good job
Wow whoever sang that did a great job!
Utah has 19 wins against BCS team since 2000.
2000: None
2001: USC, Indiana
2002: Indiana
2003: Oregon, Cal
2004: Texas A&M, Arizona, North Carolina, Pitt
2005: Georgia Tech, Arizona
2006: None
2007: UCLA, Louisville
2008: Alabama, Michigan, Oregon State
2009: Cal, Louisville
2010: Pitt
As long as your reporting it, Murph, report it right.
And the reason Boise State gets so few BCS games
I think its their stadium.
To some extent, I agree there are a lot of BCS teams that don't want to play Boise State. Big risk, little reward. But there's probably just as many willing competitors who don't want to play in a 32k stadium and on a blue turf (most people outside of Idaho think the blue turf is a joke).
It's very hard to get a home-and-home when nobody wants to make the trip to Boise.
Boise State already competes like a big-time program. If they expand the stadium and get a real playing surface, they'll finally LOOK like one too.
As for Monday, I like the Broncos by 12, 38-26.
Not sure on the turf...cptbox...
Espn ran a poll...it was posted on here a few times. The main theme was who would you like to see win the NC of the top 5...BSU was #1 decisively. The other part was the blue turf..of 66000 votes, 51% loved it. Now I'm sure it's not a real scientific approach,ie JD Powers etyc, it's still a bit of an indicator. All I'm saying is that perception is not what people think. For the record, I'd rather see green. I've said that before and take heat for it everytime. I'm a traditional guy...green GRASS baby!
BLUE TURF
I don't know the history of why BSU chose blue grass. Is your new stadium going to have green or blue grass? FYI: If you guys beat Virginia Tech and Oregon St., then I can't see how people can say you are overrated. Of course, they will. TCU will continue to get the same thing. I love their argument..."You aren't good enough to be in a BCS conference, so we won't let you in.....You aren't good enough because you aren't in a BCS conference." See the flaw in that argument? Good luck against Virginia Tech. Shut up those nay-sayers with a win.
Frogman1
Don't see how anyone could say TCU is overrated ... especially after last night. I'm just glad the game tomorrow night isn't against you guys. Good enough to be in a BCS conference? How about good enough to beat everyone in a BCS conference?
TCU exposed Oregon State just a bit last night. Yeah, they are a very good team, but you could see some things that were exploited.
Best of luck the rest of the way. Enough of meeting each other in the bowl game. Let's call it good after 1-1 the last two years. A draw.
If TCU and BSU hadn't been forced to face off last year in the bowl, it would have been 2-0 for the "outsiders".
thanks frog
many are optimistic, many(myself included)are nervous. nice game yesterday for tcu. i watched as much as i could while attending a wedding. hopefully tcu and boise state roll through their seasons. oregon state will be a good measure of common opponents. good luck to tcu as well.
Maryland takes center stage
Maryland has the only games in the nation tomorrow. When was the last time that state could lay claim to something like this?
What's the over/under on how many promo pieces for BSU-VA Tech ESPN runs during the Navy-Maryland game? 15-20? "Remember, right after this game it's the much-anticipated showdown of BCS contenders Boise State and Virginia Tech!"
Then we'll see a couple of short interviews, teams jumping off the bus, somebody in blue running around with a hammer, crabcakes being devoured, all that sort of stuff.
Feels like a big bowl game ... and it nearly is.
Musburger Interview of Coach Pete....
Coach sidesteps a question and chips in some sense of humor..I loved it.
Brent asks...."Coach, certainly other schools have come knocking on your door..but yet you've remained loyal..What is it about Boise?"
Pete laughs and says..." Everyone has this perception of Boise and when you get here, it's totally different. We call it a best kept secret in the west. We tell everyone..Don;t come here unless you're over 18, really big, and really fast!"
The Burger laughed....
Didn't see it
The comment by Coach Petersen is classic: " ... over 18, really big, and really fast ...". No kidding.
Musburger ought to understand the appeal of the (relatively) rural West. He's out of Billings, MT.