Football teams may not be a necessity on college campuses, but a lot of people sure do enjoy them.
Last summer, Gene Bleymaier, athletic director at Boise State, testified before Congress that his school's football team went undefeated several times, yet never got a chance to play for the national championship under the BCS, according to ESPN.com.
"The only way this is going to change is with help from the outside," Bleymaier responded when asked by subcommittee chairman, Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, whether Congress should intervene.
Rush co-sponsored legislation introduced by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, that would prevent the NCAA from labeling a game a national championship unless it is the outcome of a playoff.
Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, is investigating whether the BCS violates federal antitrust laws. The Boise State University website says that in the Senate, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch put the BCS on the agenda for the Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee.
Now that the season is 3/4 underway, these ideas seem to be gaining steam.
Dan Wetzel, of Yahoo! Sports analyzed and negatively speculated, regarding the motives that brought about this gridiron Catch 22, asking "Is it cowardice or collusion?"
Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier is all but begging for a major opponent – any major opponent – to play his Broncos, particularly in 2011. He can hardly get his calls returned. Not by the SEC. Not by the Big Ten. Not by anyone.
Bleymaier is making a nearly unheard of offer in college football scheduling – Boise will bring its popular, high-profile, top-10 team to any stadium in any town to play any big name team in America in 2011. And they don’t have to return the date in Idaho.
Wetzel wrote yesterday in a column.
ESPN has even become involved trying to broker a deal that will be nationally televised.
No takers ...
It’s the kind of non-conference game that should have schools salivating. Boise delivers an opponent that will challenge your players, exposure that will extend your brand and a home game that will excite your fans.
"It’s been surprising how many big schools have not been receptive of us coming to their place," Bleymaier said.
This is the conundrum for the upstart program and every non-major conference school trying to battle for national respect.
Boise is 44-4 over the past four seasons, including 4-1 against major conference opponents. Yet that doesn’t guarantee the Broncos a slot in a big money BCS bowl due to the level of competition they play in the Western Athletic Conference.
The school acknowledges it needs to play tougher teams. Yet how can they beat quality opponents if quality opponents won’t play them?
Boise State's last game highlights the problem: They traveled 2,000 miles to beat Louisiana Tech 45-35 in a conference game. It made their record 9-0. But they practically had to apologize because it wasn’t a blowout.
"That’s how it always is when we play," coach Chris Petersen said. "It’s never good enough. It’s good enough for us, we won. If you’re looking to win by so much, if you’re looking for style points, if you’re looking to play for the polls, which we’re not, it’s not going to be good enough."
In their a 19-8 victory over Oregon in the season opener, Boise State beat the one major opponent that would play them this year. Now Oregon is 8-1.
In Wetzel's column, he lets his dissatisfaction and fervent anti-BCS position come through with a passion.
Boise won consecutive games this year by a combined score of 99-16 and dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 in the BCS standings. Petersen said he wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped again this week. They may again put together a perfect season and still have to settle for a lower bowl.
The only answer is to play better non-conference opponents. Next season they have games against Oregon State and Virginia Tech. After that though, things may be drying up. In 2011, they can’t get one game, let alone two.
So are the big schools scared of playing Boise? Avoiding tough non-conference opponents is the new trend in college football thanks to the BCS. The championship system discourages dangerous, if exciting, out-of-league scheduling as it continues to sap the life out of the regular season.
Wetzel frames the discussion, identifying the core problem, in a fashion that many BCS critics have been doing for years. Simply put "if no one good agrees to play Boise then Boise can’t beat anyone any good. And if Boise can’t beat anyone any good, then how can they ever argue they’re deserving of a spot in a $17.5 million BCS bowl?"
"I don’t think it’s collusion," Bleymaier said. "I think it’s athletic directors going to their football coaches and saying, ‘hey, what about playing this school?’ If coaches had their druthers they’d play sisters of the poor 11 times."
"Some of those schools that are saying ‘let them play our schedule’ won’t play us," Bleymaier said.
Maybe Florida and Texas don’t need a game with Boise (they can ride non-conference cupcakes to the title game). A middle of the pack Big Ten or Big 12 team certainly does though. Boise’s program is more famous than all of them – the Broncos are on true national television seven times this season alone.
Yet no one wants the game. They’ll schedule mismatches from the old Division I-AA instead (and charge full ticket price). Bleymaier has to keep his composure as he listens to the critics.
Last year Utah went 13-0 yet didn’t have a chance to play for the BCS title. At a Congressional subcommittee hearing University of Nebraska chancellor and BCS figurehead Harvey Perlman was asked what the Utes could’ve done differently.
"They could have played the schedule Nebraska did," Perlman said.
Would Boise accept an invitation to join the Big 12?
"Yeah, of course," Bleymaier said. "If we were in their conference we’d play that schedule."
The open date remains – Sept. 3, 2011. The offer stands, the Broncos will go anywhere.
And, lo and behold, guess which major conference school happens to have an open date? How about Harvey Perlman’s Nebraska, the one-time powerhouse which could use all the big attention grabbing games it can get these days?
Wetzel is very pessimistic that Nebraska will take on the challenge. He is probably right.
Scrap the BCS and start a playoff.
Sound far-fetched? Consider the fact that a few hours ago Navy beat Notre Dame for the second time in their last three meetings (see Navy sinks Notre Dame's BCS hopes).
Who would have thought ...?
Other big money sports have figured out how to make it work -- a winning formula. Big time college football can too.
Upsets happen every week. We can beat the BCS.