Boise State, do they deserve a chance?

[zincfinger]

I do know that it is very difficult for good mid-majors to schedule. Alot of the times it is either an extreme good team (@ Ohio State) or extreme bad team (Temple, Indiana State). I am actually surprised Boise State got Oregon State at home. Since 2003, NIU hasn't been able to get a BCS to come to DeKalb.

Why should NIU, or Boise State, be insisting on home games in order to beef up the non-conference schedule? If Boise State had simply emulated OSU's three toughest (by prediction) road games - @Texas, @Iowa, and @MSU - which weren't that bad in retrospect, they would get far more consideration for inclusion in a national championship discussion. Boise could easily schedule three away non-conference games of similar calibre, if they wanted to. It would make their record far more attractive, if they were able to go undefeated, and I suspect that many voters would not hold it against them that they were still lacking comparable matchups to what the major BCS teams had at home. In short, if a team like Boise wants serious national title consideration, they should accept the fact that their conference schedule is so weak that they need to go on the road against multiple serious opponents in the non-conference to make up for it.

 

[milkman21]

In short, if a team like Boise wants serious national title consideration, they should accept the fact that their conference schedule is so weak that they need to go on the road against multiple serious opponents in the non-conference to make up for it, if necessary.

Exactly. As I was saying before, it's sheer nonsense to walk through a powderpuff schedule and then expect to have your name tossed around in the NC discussion. You want it? Earn it--all season long.

 

[jwinslow]

Boise could easily schedule three away non-conference games of similar calibre, if they wanted to

Not really... many top programs are hesitant to schedule teams like Boise State. Similar to what Louisville faced in past years.

 

[zincfinger]

Not really... many top programs are hesitant to schedule teams like Boise State. Similar to what Louisville faced in past years.

I think you're wrong. You don't need to have every single major BCS team lining up to play you in order to get 3 or 4 solid out-of-conference games every year. There might be a few major BCS schools that would hesitate to play Boise State or NIU at home in any given year (although I don't think that's true - more realistic is that some schools just wouldn't have room for them at any given time). But you can't seriously argue that BSU couldn't beef up its ooc schedule tremendously if they wanted to, and were willing to travel anywhere.

 

[milkman21]

Precisely. Look at Fresno State's approach...playing top-10 teams virtually every year.

 

[G-FORCE]

Why should NIU, or Boise State, be insisting on home games in order to beef up the non-conference schedule? If Boise State had simply emulated OSU's three toughest road games - @Texas, @Iowa, and @MSU - which weren't that bad in retrospect, they would get far more consideration for inclusion in a national championship discussion. Boise could easily schedule three away non-conference games of similar calibre, if they wanted to. It would make their record far more attractive, if they were able to go undefeated, and I suspect that many voters would not hold it against them that they were still lacking comparable matchups to what the major BCS teams had at home. In short, if a team like Boise wants serious national title consideration, they should accept the fact that their conference schedule is so weak that they need to go on the road against serious opponents in the non-conference to make up for it, if necessary.

NIU does schedule those game every year.

2002:
Wake Forest
@ Wisconsin

2003:
Maryland
Iowa State
@ Alabama

2004:
@ Maryland
@ Iowa State

2005:
@ Michigan
@ Northwestern

2006:
@ Ohio State
@ Iowa

2007:
@ Tennessee
Iowa (Soldier Field)

2008:
@ Alabama

2009:
@ Purdue

2010:
@ Iowa State
@ Tennessee

Now, I am not going to sit here and b!tch about playing these teams. First of all, it's amazing to go the places like the Shoe, Bighouse, and Bama is an amazing place to see a game. You also get a big payout most of the time. It is also gives you some great expierence, and sometimes you can pull of a year like NIU almost did in 2003. However, you get guys injured in games like those, and like it did to NIU last year, it could cost you a bowl game.

Now, Boise State is starting to get to a point where they have to schedule great teams OOC like Memphis does in basketball. However, 3 of those games come back-to-back-back. I would like to see anybody go through a stretch of playing like @ Ohio State, @ Texas, and even a decent BCS team like a Iowa or something and come out unscaved. Also, on a 12 game schedule do you want to go play 3 or all of your OOC games on the road? No, you need to get some home games also. Plus, unless you have a great team like a Boise this year, there is a good chance you can come out of your first 3 games 0-3. That put's yourself in a place where you can't mess up in conference play or you will be going bowling. It's not even like Boise played Wisconsin's OOC schedule this year. They played a 1-AA (bad), a pretty solid Oregon team, an above average Utah team, and a meh Wyoming.

 

[G-FORCE]

Precisely. Look at Fresno State's approach...playing top-10 teams virtually every year.

And we all saw how that worked out for them this year.

 

[milkman21]

And we all saw how that worked out for them this year.

Haha, yes... but they have the balls to play the games at least, as does NIU. The same cannot be said of BSU.

 

[duke_shoot]

No second tier team deserves to play for the NC

 

[gbearbuck]

They played 5 bowl teams, and 4 of them won their bowls. How is that beating one "legit" team.

So a win over OU would help tOSU's case? Who cares, bowls are a joke now .500 and you're in???

Again, two (two so folks don't say it was a "lucky" win) wins over "legit" top 20 (even higher ranked is better) type teams, conference champs, and no losses would get a "yes" vote in my book... anything short of that is "no" imo...