Originally posted by Juradon:
Have to agree with Boise State President Bob Kustra. The big schools regularly schedule smaller conferences and NON BCS schools to play, and they will have two or three on their schedules. Then if you consider that not all teams in the BCS and SEC are that great. Granted sometimes teams in the SEC will face 2 or 3 teams in a row that will be tough. But Kustra's point is that it is a lie, to act like they have a murders row each and every weak. Hey Alabama scheduled San Jose St to play in Alabama! Not Boise St.
I don't think anyone who knows football would think that Reno rated at #18 are the sisters of the poor. Actually in a funny way TCU and Boise St are helping to SPREAD the money around to smaller conferences everytime they get in the BCS bowl games. It's the money that the big schools want to go to them. They want the Boise St and TCU's with no budget, it only helps to keep them out.
Boise St will play it's 3rd ranked team of the season in Reno. They will be going for their 25th game in a row. So looking at the full body of work, Boise has the credentials to play in any bowl game. Any long winning streak SHOULD be considered in any poll. I know they don't do it but they should.
The worst culprit of hurting the non-AQ's aren't the BCS or Big 6 schools, it's the preseason rankings.
Every year, the SEC gets 5-6 teams, Big 10 & 12 get 4, Pac-10 gets 3-4, ACC gets 2-3, Big East gets 1-2, and maybe 1-2 non-AQ gets a #20 preseason ranking.
Those 6 SEC teams get the I-AA and lameduck bottom feeders for their first 3 games, so not only do they move up, but when they play against each other, their resume looks like they played 5 ranked opponents, which gives them the inside track to play in the NC.
At least the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-10 try to play the upper tier teams of each conference not named the SEC. MWC played against some of the better Pac-10 and Big 10 teams and won, top 3 WAC teams played some of the better teams (USC, Oregon St, VaTech, Cal, Wisconsin, etc).
Need to get rid of the preseason poll and start ranking after the 2nd week, so to force the big schools to play better preseason games. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind if an OSU, LSU, or Michigan play a I-AA squad, but only play one, not 3 in a row before league play.
One of my favorite games is watching the Bill Walsh Classic (Stanford vs San Jose St.) b/c there's history, granted Stanford is waaaaaaaaaaaaay more talented, but then standford goes and starts playing teams like Wake Forest(when scheduled, Wake was a top 3 ACC team) and Notre Dame (Notre Dame is always a challenge due to rivalry).
....not a bama fan, more of a "I want 2 Pac-10 teams in BCS bowls" kinda guy) had to be how Auburn's defense stepped up and took out two future 1st round running backs, a 1st round WR in Jones, and sacked the QB 5 times, including the last one that make McElroy think he was Lois Lane after a quickie from Superman, lol