Crap, it’s the Broncos Again. How will the BCS deal with Boise State and TCU?

by Paul Grossinger
(Baltimore, Maryland)

If I were given three wishes, I would probably ask for the health and happiness of my family, a few billion dollars, and to be able to go back in time and arm-wrestle Alexander the Great. But, if I were feeling whimsical, I would probably ask to be a fly on the wall for some of the conversations going on right now between BCS bigwigs about what to do about the mid-majors.

Those awful little mid-majors! With their strong, big time conference rosters and weak opposition, they are primed for undefeated seasons every year. I mean, undefeated seasons seem impossible for top teams from major conferences since they face tough opposition each week but when you face UC Davis, Tulsa, Hawaii, and San Jose State, as the Broncos have this October, what is to stop you going 13-0?

Therein lies the problem though. To most people, an undefeated season is an undefeated season. As Utah advocates so eloquently explained last year, how could they not be offered a Championship bid when they went 13-0? No one had defeated them whereas both Florida and Oklahoma were imperfect. Even more egregious perhaps was the case of the Broncos who, after going 12-0, were not even invited to a BCS bowl. And, some nine months and a half season later, the Broncos are again marching towards an undefeated record and, most probably, a non-BCS bowl. After all, with mid-major TCU still undefeated (and facing a stronger but still weak finishing schedule), how will the Broncos be accommodated.

Ultimately, this is the debate of record versus schedule. The debate is interesting because these mid-major teams have perfect records yet there is no way to gage how good they really are. Whereas both stood at 12-0 in late November of last year, Utah went on to smack Alabama in the Sugar Bowl whereas Boise State went up in flames in a mid-level bowl. If there is no gage or measure on how good these teams are versus the powerhouses from the other conferences, how they be evaluated? And, more importantly, how can the BCS justify taking the monetary hit of allowing a mid-major into the BCS unless they are truly amazing?

I don’t have any answers to these questions. Unfortunately, I have yet to meet Robin Williams in a genie costume or be a fly on the wall during high-level BCS discussions, What can be said though is that, with two mid-majors undefeated and in the top-ten, the BCS must pray for a defeat, solve the dilemma soon, or face a fiasco even worse than last years’; a fiasco the BCS can hardly afford with President Obama and every Obama fan in the nation already on their backs. In the end, while we can’t see the lead-up, we’ll all witness the end game.