OK, I’m one of those who think the Boise St. win over Oklahoma was awesomely impressive.  However, the number of articles and columns I’ve seen since the champ game saying Boise St. got robbed of their rightful shot to play for the national championship force me to respond:

Are you KIDDING me!?!

First of all, Boise St. played the winner of the Big-12, Oklahoma.  Yes, the same Big-12 that got demolished in their bowl games, going 3-5.  Yes, the same Oklahoma that lost a nail biter (kinda like the Fiesta Bowl) to Oregon.  Yes, the same Oregon that got down-right abused throughout the season by just about any good team including their 38-8 loss to BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.  You just can’t call a win over Oklahoma, particularly in a close game, an automatic candidate for the National Championship.  Oklahoma is just not that good.

Second of all, I didn’t hear any of the same complaints when Utah did the same thing 2 years ago.  I think what this indicates is that people are over-infatuated with the nature of the Fiesta Bowl victory with all its trick plays and going for 2 points.  As cool as it was, it has nothing to do with who the rightful national champion is.

Third of all, undefeated doesn’t mean anything if you don’t play anyone.  There are two ways one can look at ratings: losses (is who you lost to good enough for the loss not to be damning) or victories (have you beat anyone who is impressive).  I wise evaluation looks at both.  So while undefeated is a convincing argument in the losses category, Oklahoma is BY FAR Boise’s most impressive victory.  Their only other victory of note is Oregon St. who hadn’t yet got their act together when the two teams played.

So, sorry Boise St..  It was an awesome game and if we had a playoff system that gave you another chance to prove yourself I’d be pulling for you.  But we don’t.  You’re going to have to be happy with #5 and the 2nd non-BCS team to win a BCS bowl game.  Congrats.  It is indeed something to be proud of.  Don’t let the pundits rob you of that feeling by convincing you that you were robbed of anything.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.