Can we please stop calling them David-and-Goliath upsets?
Four years ago, the Utah Utes thrashed Pitt 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl. Two years ago, Boise State beat an 11-1 Oklahoma squad in the very same stadium. And then this year, the Utes returned to the BCS and knocked off Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
David only slew Goliath once.
Cinderella's fairy godmother only showed up to one girl.
Non-BCS conference teams have won three of their four BCS bowl appearances. The Big Ten is 0-5 in their last five. Prior to Virginia Tech's Orange Bowl win, the ACC hadn't won a BCS bowl since Florida State won the BCS Championship in 2000.
We need to stop calling them stunning upsets. We, the collective sports viewing public, need to change our perceptions and expectations. We need to evaluate teams fairly and objectively so we can stop being "stunned" when this happens.
And when I say "we" I generally mean "you:" You, the hypocritical over-bloated sports network whose concocted baloney seems to have no expiration date; you, the insecure Southerner whose lingering bitterness with "them derned Yankees" has been translated into football arrogance; you, the lazy graduate assistant who fills out ballots for the Coach Weises of the world; and you, the armchair economist hellbent on convincing the world the little guys have no place at the table out of some fear the game will suffer financially.
Utah was ranked higher in Wes Colley's computer poll. They were ranked higher in the rankings Jeff Sagarin presented to the BCS. They were ranked 2nd in Jeff Anderson's poll, only behind Oklahoma. They were ranked higher in Massey's and Wolfe's. The only computerized poll that didn't rank them higher was Richard Billingsley's, which uses the tainted factor of past seasons.
Yet, to many, computers are just mythical boxes of random numbers that mean nothing, so they discarded them and decided Alabama would be a 10-point favorite, and framed most discussion around such.
Brilliant.
Two years ago I wrote about Boise State being my national champions. The same reasons therein can now be applied to Utah in a sobering case of deva ju.
For worse, and not better, we're going to have an "officially" crowned national champion with a glaring blemish on their record, either a home loss or a neutral loss to a rival with a better resume.
Utah has no such blemishes. They won at Ann Arbor when everyone thought Michigan was still Michigan. They beat TCU and BYU, both of whom made the top 15 at one point in the season. They beat as many bowl teams on the road as Southern Cal and took care of the Sun Bowl champions.
How can they not get a share of the national title?
Because of their schedule? Give me a break. They went on the road to Ann Arbor, a game that was scheduled well before anyone knew Michigan would suck, a game few schools like Texas or LSU would ever think of scheduling. Alabama, Texas Tech, Southern Cal, and Penn State all had schedules in the lower half of all D-1 strength of schedules and not one of them would have been kept from the title game for that reason.
16 comments Last one added 5 months ago — Leave a Comment
12 6 months ago
I'll have to agree now, but I wouldn't have agreed with you before the game. I had no idea what Utah football was. I would have compared the Utes to Hawaii last season if I had been asked. But let it be known this is one Alabama fan who says "hats off" to a great Utah team who thoroughly kicked Bama's arse. Let the lesson be learned. Utah is no David. Utah should be considered for the National Championship. I've said this once before since the game ended, and I'll say it again...I hope the AP gives the #1 ranking to a very deserving Utah team. Congratulations on a great game and an outstanding season to the Utah Utes.
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C L 6 months ago
The BCS helps to continute the mythology. It says these conferences with these teams, which all you 'lazy fans' have heard of can contend. The rest, the mid-majors, the non-BCS, the SEC-lites, or Big East wannabes, all of them who you may not have heard of will not contend. Who cares if you never heard of the University of South Florida, who started football in 1997, until they entered the Big East....now that they are among the Titans they MUST be known. Their neighbors on I-4, the University of Central Florida who has been around since the 70's....they're in C-USA so don't worry your little brain about them. 120 teams is way too many teams for you to keep track of lazy fan, so we will sort them out, get rid of most of the directional and modifier schools. Michigan not Central, Western, or Eastern Michigan. Tennessee not Middle Tennessee State. If youve got tradition it doesn't matter how bad you suck today, Washington and Washington State? Those sound legit! And EVERYONE knows they would destroy an unknown team like Troy or Fresno State or Florida Atlantic...their name alone implies superiority.
The BCS is fundamentally un-American. It restricts social mobility within College Football. Those that make it are so few and entirely lucky (see USF). Those that were good in the past, ever, retain their place in the pantheon despite what they do now. The question of a playoff is ancillary to the fundamental difference that the BCS creates between two sets of teams, and the recruiting and financial restrictions that come along with being on the outside looking in. Washington could go undefeated next year and be in the National Championship game. If that doesn't make a Utah fan want to blow up the BCS I don't know what will. From a Sun Belt team hoping for change, Mountain West lead the way!
Great article...I too will have Utah as my National Champion this year.
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Mark Lawyer 6 months ago
Well said. To many of us, Utah is the National Champion this year, unless the winner of the BS bowl wishes to challenge them on the field. The burden is on anyone else to prove otherwise. The BS bowl has no legitimacy when most reasonable persons see its blatant arbitrary selection of who gets to play for a championship that should be determined by fair and honest competition on the field.
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Billy Ray 6 months ago
J.C. you make some valid points. Many fans of BCS conference schools don't even realize anyone outside of thier own conference can play some ball too. Automatic qualifiers are not fair to the more deserving candidates.
Not to nit pick but Oklahomas record was actually 11-2 going into the Fiesta against Boise St.. They had lost early in the season at Oregon in the infamous blown on-side kick debacle and against Texas in the RRR. Also, for the record, OU had a better resume than Texas this year hence the spot in the conference championship game. OU played virtually the same schedule in conference along with Cincinnatti (Big East champs) and TCU ( who beat undefeated Boise St. and would have beaten Utah if their field goal kicker hadn't choked twice.)
Good article. Utah did look very tough.
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Jack Peck 6 months ago
Billy, I would like to write a footnote to your post. The Utah team that met Alabama in the Sugar Bowl was not the same team that barely beat TCU, or for that matter, Michigan and Oregon State. Utah's offensive coordinator never figured out how to use Utah's full potential until the BYU game, and I'm not sure who it was that finally got the message through to him.
Had we had a better OC, Utah's record for the entire season would have beem more impressive. Not just my opinion. Every Utah fan I spoke with felt the same.
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Billy Ray 6 months ago
Whoever got the message through to him (your O-Cord.) deserves a giant bonus because they looked nothing like the team I watched against TCU. Hats off to the UTES!
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blackjackjackson 6 months ago
i'd just like to note to usc, utah and texas......
auburn didn't whine 1/10 th of what all yall have been crying your asses off at.
auburn was undefeated and then ok lost to usc.
and no self respecting ap writer will ever question the house that usc gave to reggie bush.
no, the ap writers will keep their mouths shut b/c they gave a tainted n.c. to usc the year before.
don't laugh at the bcs when you have to depend on the lowly bought off shills of big corp america, the ap.
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Chad L 6 months ago
...that same year, Utah (yes; THAT Utah) went undefeated and got matched up with Pitt.
Why Utah didn't play "y'all" that year is a mystery to me.
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Jason Cottier 6 months ago
Where the hell was anyone talking about houses and shit...I thought this was about the BCS rankings. That would be like me saying oh well I guess Auburn didn't have a reason to whine since the school is going through a racial issue...completely unrelated to the issue of the BCS.
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blackjackjackson 6 months ago
if you want to beat down on the bcs, then you get ap back at top.
the ap condones the reggie bush house by not writing about it.
usc should loose that year b/c of illegalities.
the previous systems sucked and that is why the bcs w/ the strongest conferences having the power.
remember when ... there are only a few consensus n.c. in the history of college football.
the bcs now tries to make a better system, and the loosers are crying for the old days....or....
or, the new days, when they can make up the rules to suit themselves.
this is the bcs, not the ap, which is a bunch of WRITERS voting on who looks the best.
neither is head to head, but without the bcs, usc and notre dame would be n.c. every year.
and that would definitely leave utah out of the picture.
p.s. i'm not an auburn fan, but they did not complain like the whiners this year.
they played the rules that were agreed to
p.p.s. louisiana is about the size of utah and yet it has two bcs (mostly luck backing in.) i guess utah could join the pac 10 and have more legitamacy. or schedule usc, fl or alabama regularly.
strength of schedule, strength of schedule. sure, you can discount the 1-aa teams, but, you still gotta fight 5 or 6 contenders. and if you do, and if you win your games, then maybe you could be the next lsu.
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Larry Livsey 6 months ago
J.C. I agree with everything you said. It is ironic that the column opposite this article ranks the top teams. The team icon is shown for every "BCS" conference team. The MWC and WAC members have no such designation. The attitude of the haves and have nots are alive and well on the Bleacher Report.
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carl uteri 6 months ago
Talk to the people at Colorado about scheduling... CU generally has one of the toughest in the nation (and play Utah in 2011-2012 by the way), but come the end of the year, the media voting on all league teams and such forget that and seem to reward those players from schools in the conference that fatten up their statistics on the Division I-AA's like Sam Houston State or all the directional schools the midwest and south has to offer.
The coaches have to vote the Florida-OU winner No. 1; but it doesn't say anywhere they can't SPLIT their vote. Go Utes!
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Wayne Yancey 6 months ago
From a Boise State fan, I say congrats to Utah. Hope some attitudes would change with this, but probably not. For the record, in the BSU Fiesta bowl, OU was lucky to get back into that game when a punt bounced off the leg of a BSU player, and left a short field for a touch, otherwise BSU pretty much controlled that game. That was probably the greatest game I have seen, but Utah beating Alabama was a real treat and may have bigger impact, hopefully combined will effect change to a playoff.
The real winners of the current system are the weak BCS schools / conferences because they benefit without having to produce. Good point earlier about USF.
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Nate Joshlin 6 months ago
bologna sounds good
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Roy Belle 6 months ago
For those of you that don't think Utah's schedule is all that tough, send your team to Salt Lake I'm sure they will go home and home with any of you. Also, next time they schedule UCLA or Michigan or others will you somehow make sure they don't have a down year.
Please Oregon, Notre Dame, keep winning after we play you soon.
Oh, and next time Wyoming goes to Tennessee, please tell them if they are going to suck, call ahead so they can reschedule until they don't suck.
This is like the 80's when BYU had good teams and beat the likes of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, UCLA, Washington, Notre Dame, Penn State, Miami, somehow they were always looked down upon. I hope people start giving these teams some credit when they earn it.
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Scott Pusich 5 months ago
In an eight-team playoff (with the Sugar bowl as a quarterfinal), Utah advances, Alabama doesn't. Who knows if they would've been able to win two more–those who hold the power to change the system refuse to contemplate that possibility.
The *least* we can do is let them (university presidents and conference commissioners; sports network executives; and any pro-BCS sportswriter within "pen-shot"...) know.
Great article, J.C. Five stars.
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