I've been meaning to write this blog for sometime now, and now I'm so bored during my lunch break at work that I might be able to get a good chunk of this done. I love football and it is just around the corner I can hardly take it. The sad thing is that in my new apartment I don't have cable yet. I'm working getting some cable, and hopefully be able to watch some games soon. This is the year to be watching college football. I don't think there will be a more dramatic season of football. Not only do we have teams jumping ship after this year to a new conference. (Nebraska to the Big Ten, Utah and Colorado to the Pac-10, and Boise State, Nevada, and Fresno State to the Mountain West.) You have new quarterbacks ready to take over the dynasty, where they are filling the shoes of great quarterbacks. (Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, and Tim Tebow.) And then you have the drama of the non-automatic qualifiers poised to bust the BCS and even make it to the national championship. Boise State starts off ranked #3, TCU is #6 and Utah and Houston are just out of the top 25. It is a great time to be a college football fan.
BOISE STATE
As I start my college preview, I must start with my favorite team of course, the Boise State Broncos. Boise State starts higher than they ever have, and higher than any other non-AQ team in college football. They start behind Alabama and Ohio State who have very difficult schedules. Boise State finally has the non-conference schedule strength to help make up for their poor conference schedule. If the Broncos go undefeated it will be very hard to keep them out of the national championship game. It would be very unfair to keep a team who has gone undefeated two years in a row. I believe that they might still get shafted, but one can only pray. First they must take care of the #10 ranked Virginia Tech team. If the Broncos can win that game they will have a free ride to an undefeated season. This team is loaded. They return 20 of 22 starters including heisman candidate Kellen More and All-WAC receivers Austin Pettis and Titus Young. Not only that, but they return the whole offensive line who gave up the fewest sacks in the nation last year. Their defense is even better than their offense and will be very hard to run and score against.
BYU
Since i have so many people that are BYU fans I felt I must share my opinion on the Cougars. To be honest, I'm starting to like the Cougars less and less during the coming years. First off I can't stand some of the fans, and now I can't stand the way they are handling their athletic department. I truly believe that BYU is upset that they got left behind while Utah went to the Pac-10. Earlier this month there were rumors that BYU wanted to go independent. Independent is where they are not tied to a conference and they get to make their own schedule every year like Notre Dame, Army, and Navy. Many of the Cougar faithful want them to go independent. They think they can play without a conference, get into a BCS bowl, and not have to share their money with anyone. Of course they could do it. They have their own television network that could reach the whole country. They have a giant fan base. If they were just going after the money this would be a great idea. If they are going for Football Prestige though this would be a foolish idea, and here is why?:
1. The BCS has a system where Notre Dame must be ranked in the top 8 for them to get an automatic BCS birth. Army and Navy however, are only guaranteed a BCS game if they are in the top 2. There is no guarantee that BYU will get the same treatment that Notre Dame does.
2. A Mountain West schedule will bring more strength than a custom one: If BYU were to go independent they would have to schedule close to 12 games. One would be Utah of course, they have received agreements to play Texas and Boise State as well. They also had agreed to play six WAC teams as well (since all of the other sports would become part of the WAC) They would probably play Army, Navy, and Notre Dame, and Utah State as well. That is a weaker schedule than the one they already have. Six MWC games is a lot stronger than six WAC teams and will be more credible. BYU can't even go undefeated in their own conference. What makes them think they will be able to go undefeated with a custom schedule that includes Texas and maybe some other top 25 teams down the road too. The Mountain West will be disappointed that they left them and no Mountain West teams will want to play them down the road.
The Mountain West has invited Fresno State and Nevada to play in their conference. Both of them have accepted. The talks of going independent have died down, probably because BYU doesn't want to play their other sports in a conference with only six teams. In time we will find out.
Here is my top 25 for this season. It is a little biased, but I truly believe the top 25 are in this order:
1. Boise State
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Texas
5. TCU
6. Nebraska
7. Oklahoma
8. Iowa
9. Florida
10. Virginia Tech
11. Wisconsin
12. Miami
13. Pittsburgh
14. Oregon
15. Florida State
16. Auburn
17. USC
18. North Carolina
19. Georgia Tech
20. Arkansas
21. LSU
22. Utah
23. Oregon State
24. Penn State
25. Houston
Here are my projected conference winners.
Florida Sate - ACC Atlantic
Virginia Tech - ACC Coastal
Nebraska - Big 12 North
Texas - Big 12 South
Pittsburgh - Big East
Wisconsin - Big Ten
Southern Miss - Conf. USA East
Houston - Conf. USA West
Temple - MAC East
Central Michigan - MAC West
Utah - MWC
Oregon - Pac-10
Florida - SEC East
Alabama - SEC West
Middle Tennessee- Sun Belt
Boise State - WAC
And the last thing for my review: You all know how I would love for a 16-team playoff. This is what it would look like going off the Preseason Rankings
#1 Alabama (SEC) vs. #16 Ohio (MAC)
#2 Ohio State (Big Ten) vs. #15 East Carolina (C-USA)
#3 Boise State (WAC) vs. #14 Middle Tennessee (Sun Belt)
#4 Texas (Big 12) vs. #13 Pittsburgh (Big East)
#5 Florida (At Large) vs. #12 Wisconsin (At Large)
#6 TCU (MWC) vs. #11 Oregon (Pac-10)
#7 Oklahoma (At Large) vs. #10 Virginia Tech (ACC)
#8 Nebraska (At Large) vs. #9 Iowa (At Large)
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Very interesting. I didn't realize there were so many conferences. I still think it would be fun to go to a Boise State game if we could work it out.
Funny story: Brandt was talking to his cousin Dan last week about random stuff and he called me on his way home from work and I asked him what they talked about. He's like, "Dan told me there's a whole bunch of chaos going on with college football...." and then he launches into this story about everything he learned. I just smiled and said, "Ummm, yeah Brandt I knew that a long time ago." And he's like, "How did YOU know." And I said, "umm, hello? it's a HUGE deal! EVERYONE knows about that!" I thought it was really funny that he had no idea! I made fun of him. :)
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