Boise State Will Never Play for a National Championship

Everyone loves an underdog, it is human nature to root for them.  Boise State has long been the darlings of college football, proving that you don't have to be a member of a mega conference to compete with college football's elite teams.  Most feel that mid majors are not nearly as good as the top dogs in college football simply because they don't have the facilities, financial means, and reputation to recruit the top talent in the country. 

Boise State has proven over the past 8 years that they truly belong with the best teams in the nation.  They have won two Fiesta Bowl's over the past 8 seasons with wins over powerhouse teams like Oklahoma, and TCU.  Just last season they were virtually a lock to play in their first ever Rose Bowl until their kicker Kyle Brotzman  missed a last second field goal to beat Nevada and go undefeated!

Nevada ended up winning the game in overtime, crushing the Broncos hopes of playing in their first ever Rose Bowl.  If you are a member of the Boise State team or even a fan, there is no sense of crying over spilled milk.  It is a new season and once again they are one of the top teams in the country, currently ranked 4th in the nation.

Most impressive about Boise State is that they are not afraid to play opponents in  their non conference schedule against the country's elite teams, every year, and go toe to toe with these tough opponents.  This season they have already defeated Georgia who was ranked 19th at the time, in Atlanta!  Last season they opened against Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.  

Boise St. can't help who they play in their conference, but fortunately for them they are now a member of the Mountain West conference, which is a much better conference than the WAC.  Boise will go from playing teams like NMSU and Hawaii, to TCU and Utah on an annual basis.  This certainly will help their case to possibly play for a national championship.

I still feel it is a long shot at best for Boise to ever play for a national title, even with the move to the Mountain West conference.  Do they deserve to play for a national championship?  Without question, and I feel that they are good enough to win one if ever given the opportunity.

Here is the problem.  College football wants teams from the mega conferences to play in the national championship game.  It is good for ratings, which makes it extremely important  for financial reasons.  Most would agree that the system used to decide which teams  participate in the national championship game is seriously flawed.  It is hard to believe that a computer and not a human is responsible for  making the call.   Since the world is not written in black and white one would figure that a committee of people should determine what teams are deserving of playing in the most prestigious game in college football, in order to take all of the grey into consideration.

Some people may argue that since the teams are chosen by a computer, a team like Boise would have a better shot at playing in a national championship game.  After all the BCS is a computer,  it is just a machine,  and last time I checked a machine is not bias.

These systems are based on biased criteria, which forces one to consider the people who create the computer programs that make these crucial decisions;  do you ever wonder what their motives are? Since there is no playoff system in college football, the BCS  is the deciding factor; dictating what teams play in the bowl championship series games, and subsequently the national championship game as well.

A playoff system would be perfect for college football, after all it is the only major sport that doesn't have one.  Imagine the NCAA Tournament of college football!  Now that would be fun to say the least.

The bottom line is that Boise St. is a mid major university playing in the Mountain West Conference.  If they played in a conference like the PAC 12 or SEC they would most certainly end up playing in a national championship game.  The PAC 12 announced last week that it is not expanding so that rules out Boise becoming a member of that conference anytime soon.

There is talk that Conference USA and the Mountain West may merge in the future.  This would be interesting but wouldn't give the Broncos a better chance of playing for a national title because of the competition that exists in these conferences.  Yet, let's face it, the Mountain West and C-USA are respectable conferences, but they do not have the quality of teams that play in the BCS conferences.

When it is all said and done the BCS will always take a one loss team from the SEC over an undefeated Boise St. team to play in the national title game.  At times there  is not a team in the nation that is more deserving  than Boise St. to play for a national title, but unfortunately, unless they join one of the mega conferences, it will never happen.

Until then Boise St. will continue to be ranked in the top 10 every season and have the opportunity to at least play in a BCS game each year.  In terms of recruiting, Boise St. doesn't have any problems, as they have now established their program as one of the best in the land.  Look at Americas' star running back Jack Fields, he has committed to playing for Boise State.

Boise State may never end up playing for a national championship, but they sure have earned the respect of millions of college football fans.  If nothing else, they have given hope to all the mid major programs across the country.