On The Mark: Should Utah, Boise State and Ball State be in BCS mix?
Three of the five unbeaten teams left in major college football reside in non-BCS conferences.
Do you really think they would be unbeaten if they played anywhere else?
With only four weeks left in the 2008 season, three teams from non-BCS leagues are in position to earn a lucrative spot in a BCS bowl game.
Utah is 10-0 with two regular-season games to play and sits at No. 7 in the BCS standings. No. 9 Boise State is 9-0 with three games to play. No. 14 Ball State, known more for its canning jars and alumnus David Letterman than football, also is a perfect 9-0.
Only one of the aforementioned teams is guaranteed a chance to play in one of the five BCS bowl games. Under the current BCS rules, a team from outside the six BCS conferences -- ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC -- automatically qualifies if it finishes in the top 12 of the final BCS standings.
Such a team also qualifies if it is ranked No. 16 or better and is higher than the champion of one of the BCS leagues. As it currently stands, No. 16 North Carolina is the highest-rated ACC team. No. 21 Pittsburgh is the highest-rated Big East team.
The Tar Heels and Panthers have done more to deserve a BCS berth than Ball State, Boise State or Utah.
The Utes have gotten a ton of mileage from their 25-23 upset of Michigan in the not-so-Big House in their Aug. 30 opener. That victory seemed pretty impressive until we all realized how bad the Wolverines really are in coach Rich Rodriguez's first season. Toledo, which is 2-7 and already in the market for a new coach, beat the Wolverines 13-10 in Ann Arbor, Mich., nearly a month ago.
Utah's signature win came Thursday night, a 13-10 victory over No. 12 TCU. Quarterback Brian Johnson drove the Utes 80 yards in the final minutes, throwing the winning 9-yard touchdown to Freddie Brown with 48 seconds to play. Utah won after the Horned Frogs missed two field goals in the fourth quarter.
"We needed this to solidify our [BCS] ranking," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after beating TCU. "It feels great we don't need any help from anybody. We can talk about the conference now, we still have some games and things are far from over, but what more can you say about what's transpired to this point in time?"
Utah is the only team from a non-BCS league with an argument to claim a BCS berth. The Utes won at Air Force 30-23 and beat Oregon State, which upset then-No. 1 Southern California 27-21 on Sept. 25. Utah plays at hapless San Diego State on Saturday and closes the regular season at home against No. 17 BYU on Nov. 22.
Victories over Oregon State, TCU and BYU would be enough to justify the Utes getting a chance to hand Oklahoma another postseason loss.
Of course, the Utes were the first team from a non-BCS league to break the BCS ceiling in 2004. Under then-coach Urban Meyer, the Utes capped a perfect 12-0 season by walloping Pittsburgh 35-7 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Meyer left for Florida a few days later, and quarterback Alex Smith was the No. 1 pick of the NFL draft the next spring. The Utes have been trying to get back to that level ever since.
Boise State became the poster child for teams from non-BCS leagues when it upset Oklahoma 43-42 in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, finishing the 2006 season with a perfect 13-0 record. The Broncos might be capable of beating another BCS-conference school in the Fiesta Bowl again. But Boise State hasn't done enough this season to deserve another chance to do it.
Only three of the eight FBS teams the Broncos have beaten this season currently have a winning record. In fact, their eight FBS opponents have a combined record of 37-41.
Boise State's best victory was a 37-32 upset of then-No. 17 Oregon on Sept. 20. The Ducks played that game without their two best quarterbacks, and then lost their third-stringer to a concussion before halftime. Oregon finished the game with two freshman rotating under center.
Boise State blasted Utah State 49-14 on Saturday. The Broncos play at 2-8 Idaho on Saturday and close the regular season at Nevada and home against Fresno State. The Wolf Pack and Bulldogs each have 5-4 records.
Ball State's résumé is even less impressive. Five of the eight FBS opponents the Cardinals have beaten have won three games or fewer. Ball State's most impressive victory to date was a 35-23 victory over Navy. Beating a team that's finally capable of beating Notre Dame doesn't carry as much weight as it used to.
After playing at Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday night (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET), the Cardinals still face two big tests: at two-time defending MAC champion Central Michigan on Nov. 19 and home against Western Michigan on Nov. 25.
If the Cardinals win their last three games and finish 12-0, they would certainly be deserving of a date in the Motor City Bowl. But winning the MAC and beating Navy and Indiana doesn't entitle a team to a trip to the Orange Bowl.
The BCS tweaked its rules before the 2006 season to ensure that teams from non-BCS conferences would have an opportunity to play in the sport's biggest postseason games.
But equality and common sense still have to outweigh inclusion.
A few weeks ago, when Tulsa looked like the best team from a non-BCS league, Golden Hurricane coach Todd Graham said he was confident his team would qualify for a BCS bowl game if it finished unbeaten.
"All the ranking stuff will take care of itself," Graham said at the time. "I'm not worried one iota, if we go 13-0, about being left out. I think it's silly to even speculate."
The Golden Hurricane promptly lost to Arkansas, one of the worst teams in the SEC.
The Razorbacks, sitting at the bottom of the SEC West, are probably good enough to beat Ball State, Boise State and Utah, too.
