Utah, Boise State, and the Arrogant Mythology Behind Deja Vu

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.

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