Boise State, My National Champions

And if this bowl season proved anything, it's that those biases need to get tossed out the window once and for all. Florida's players not only fought for themselves on Monday night—they fought for Boise State too, and every other team who was victimized by low expectations. After all, if the Gators can go out and wallop the previously-invincible juggernaut of Ohio State, how can anyone in his right mind claim that the Broncos wouldn't be able to do the same thing?

Football has never been a game of certainty: From the bounce of the ball to the vicissitudes of a season, the game is unpredictable. Schedules are often arbitrary and set years before any of the present players strap on a helmet. In any given moment, the best athlete on the field could go down with an injury.

The bottom line: You just never know.

And yet this week we've handed out a trophy to one team and denied it to another on the false assumption that we do know. Boise State would certainly lose to Florida, the conventional wisdom goes, even if Chris Leak or Percy Harvin or Brandon Siler or Derrick Harvey got injured in the first quarter.

Right.

In truth, our actions here are based on nothing more than prejudice: We've punished Boise State for the conference they play in, and for not scheduling better competition five years ago. Some of the bigger schools refused to play them? Oh, too bad, we conclude—that's just the way it is. They are, after all, Boise State, and we know how mid-majors play. They're just in an entirely different league.

(And by the way: Is this a good time to mention that everyone was fine with then-WAC representative Brigham Young winning a national title in the 1980s after beating a 6-5 team in the bleeping Holiday Bowl? My how times change...)

The cold, hard reality is that, because of the hellish system we've created and the silly beliefs that accompany it, Boise State was eliminated from championship contention before the season even started. And please, spare me the BS that the national title is "mythical," or that it somehow doesn't matter. I don't care if the NCAA doesn't recognize an official champ; I don't care if the trophy's an expensive crystal ball or an outsized pot of gold—it's a national championship, dammit, especially when every media outlet in the country acknowledges it as such.

And the Broncos never had a chance.

Which means what, exactly, for Division I-A football? As I see it, those who want to deny Boise State a share of the title this year have to live with the fact that they're excluding a third of all teams in the country from title consideration before the season even starts. Forget this "it was a great win" stuff—that's just plain wrong. And I refuse to be complicit in the system.

Me, I can't find a blemish on Boise State's resume. In Florida's case, it's easy: a 10-point loss to an Auburn team that got blown out by both Arkansas and Georgia.

Now, if you like your champion decided by years-old schedules and historical reputations and the mindless conjectures of the same people who told us Troy Smith was God, go right ahead and hand the Gators the title.

I, for one, like sticking to the game itself.

And that's why Boise State is my number one team in the country this year.

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