The current state of college football (i.e. chaos, anarchy, fear) is all Boise State’s fault.
Sorry, BCS conference teams. Apologies to you, Myles Brand. Deepest condolences, LSU, USC, and especially, Oklahoma. But the world you all live in now has no caste system, pecking order, or hierarchy thanks to the heroics of the Broncos.
The 2007 college football season was one of the wildest in recent memory. Starting with Appalachian State’s win over Michigan and not stopping until Pittsburgh was through with West Virginia, no team was safe from an unexpected loss. National champion LSU had two such encounters: overtime L’s to Kentucky and Arkansas. Runner-up Ohio State stumbled at home against Illinois.
Across the country big-name schools felt the bite of underdogs, and the results were telling: College football has changed…for the better.
All of this upheaval created palpable excitement every week of the season as fans couldn’t wait to see which Goliath was next to fall. The Davids were not necessarily small-conference schools, but they might as well have been considering how much respect and opportunity they were given beforehand.
Sure, Stanford plays in the Pac-10, but not even some Mountain West schools would have been 41-point underdogs.
The results screamed for equality, and the mounting losses of BCS schools only seemed to have increased the inevitable march toward a fairer championship system. If a team like Hawaii—having defeated everyone who had the guts to play them in the regular season—was not given a chance to play for a national title, in a year when a national champion participant came in with two losses, then it will never happen.
But with enough wins like App State over Michigan and Louisiana-Monroe over Alabama, things are bound to change.
This seismic shift would not have been possible without the Boise State Broncos. A little more than a year ago, they changed college football’s landscape for good with an improbable victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. No one took small conference schools seriously before the game, but afterwards, everyone saw the Boise States of the world differently.
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They were dangerous. They were plucky. But most importantly, they were equals.
Several months later, as the 2007 college football season was just underway, the changing atmosphere was evident when the Broncos traveled to play the Washington Huskies. In years past, Husky fans would have considered the game a warm-up to the Pac-10 schedule, believing BSU to be nothing more than a speed bump on the way to an easy win.
But last year, winning was far from a sure thing in the minds of many.
The Broncos carried respect and admiration for what they had done and what they were capable of doing, and Washington was wise not to take them lightly.
The same scene played out across college campuses all year. There were no more “easy” games for big schools. Each week was a battle. The pride of the bigger programs raised the stakes because they did not want to become the next Oklahoma or let their opponent walk out of town as the next BSU.
Now, this is the reality that we live in. When Appalachian State opens the season against LSU, the fact that the two schools don’t even play in the same division will hardly matter.
In previous years, BCS conferences considered the non-conference schedule to be largely a preseason affair, assuming victory over opponents was in the bag. Not anymore.
Boise State opened the door for the little guy, but it also kicked in the door for progress. College football needed shaking up. The excitement and unpredictability of amateur athletics is part of the beauty of the sport, but too much of those attributes were lost amidst boosters and money and success.
The rules have changed thanks to the Broncos, and they left behind a blueprint that any school can follow to success:
1. Great Coaching
Having the right staff can make up for a lot of insufficiencies elsewhere, and the right gameplans and preparations can turn the tide in a game. Any school can find a young, eager coach to lead a program, and there are many great minds out there who just need a chance.
2. Hungry Athletes
Small schools cannot recruit the biggest, fastest, strongest athletes, but they will always have a chance to grab kids who have something to prove. Many Boise State athletes were passed over by bigger programs, and their success on the field is due in large part to their motivation to prove their worth.
3. Belief in a System
Teams like Boise State often have to turn to within for inspiration when outsiders are not giving them a chance. Therefore, belief in what the team is setting out to do is important, and if everyone buys in, a unified group can go places they never thought possible.
4. Fan Culture
Boise State’s success has created quite the fan following, both from locals and from outsiders. The support of the team helps immensely at home games, and a large traveling group can make quite a difference on the road.
There is no doubt that the upset trend in college football will continue for years to come. Hopefully it will bring much-needed changes to a system that could use them, but in the meantime, enjoying the unpredictability of it all is reward enough.
Week in and week out, analysts and fans will look forward to discovering who will pull the big upset, who will wreak havoc on the polls, who will come from nowhere to surprise the country…
Who will be the next Boise State.
Kevan Lee is a contributor to One Bronco Nation Under God, a blog devoted to college football and the Boise State Broncos.
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6 months ago
Don't forget when Urban Meyer led Utah to the Fiesta Bowl in 2005, which they not only won, but in which they beat the spread by 14 points. Yeah, it was against Pitt in what was then widely considered a "lowly" Big East, but who would say that about the same conference just 3 years later?
6 months ago
Only Utah didnt end the game with arguably 3 of the best plays in college football history.....
6 months ago
Only Utah got into the BCS game under the tighter BCS rules. BSU would not have qualified under the rules that Utah qualified by.
6 months ago
I think that horn is being tooted a little too loud. We'll see if David is here to stay, or if college football will shift back to Goliath-- equilibrium.
6 months ago
Utah had the number one pick in the NFL Draft and a coach who went on to win a national title a few years later. They were not playing a traditional powerhouse who was as good as Oklahoma. And the way that they won was not nearly as exciting or memorable or improbable as the Fiesta Bowl.
6 months ago
Let's face it, the Davids of college football will always be touted. Look at my team, the Jayhawks. Did ANYONE see them even competing for a BCS game this past season? No. Let alone beating VA-Tech in the Orange Bowl. That's why the game is played. Just like baseball. (See Yankees against the Marlins World Series) There will always be people rooting for the larger school to lose, for Michigans and Oklahomas of the world to taste defeat once upon a blue moon. But, at the end of the day, my money will ALWAYS be on the Goliaths, because a 6-9 350 lb OL man will eat a 6-1 200 lb DE anyday that these smaller schools are able to wrangle in from their "open tryouts just to fill their roster" days. Good article!
6 months ago
to answer that last question it isn't hawaii. and since hawaii beat boise a month or so before the bowl games it isn't boise. of course i saw georgia smack and i mean smack boise in athens in 2006 and i was almost embarrased by that. then the fiasco in new orleans last month. hawaii may be the most overated team to EVER play in a BCS game. i don't know what it looked like on tv but in person it was again embarrasing. the truth , and i don't want to say it for fear of gloating, is lsu or georgia or tenn or florida or auburn or alabama would go indefeated in the WAC 9 out of 10 years. and probably the big 10 too. so not a whole lot has changed.
kevan were you in athens in 2006 to see it?
6 months ago
Lay off the Blue coolaid guys... I want to see the little guys play BCS teams in the non conference then we can have this conversation. Lets see Boise play BCS teams on a regular basis. Lets see the broncos sign up for a shot at USC. Week in week out they would get ground down into a pulp. Ian Johnson could not stay healthy against the JV teams that play in the WAC put him in the SEC or big twelve and see what would happen. Put Boise in the Pac-10 and they would be in there with WSU, OSU or 'Zona looking for 6 wins. They might win ten games once a decade. BSU is a good team but lets face it they are one step out of 1-AA and all this David talk and changes in college football is more myth than anything substantial.
6 months ago
Lay off the Blue coolaid guys... I want to see the little guys play BCS teams in the non conference then we can have this conversation. Lets see Boise play BCS teams on a regular basis. Lets see the broncos sign up for a shot at USC. Week in week out they would get ground down into a pulp. Ian Johnson could not stay healthy against the JV teams that play in the WAC put him in the SEC or big twelve and see what would happen. Put Boise in the Pac-10 and they would be in there with WSU, OSU or 'Zona looking for 6 wins. They might win ten games once a decade. BSU is a good team but lets face it they are one step out of 1-AA and all this David talk and changes in college football is more myth than anything substantial.
6 months ago
I agree Garry. The bottom line is, that BSU vs Sooners was a hell of a game, great plays, fumbles , interceptions, great and crapy QB calls/throws...etc etc. To me that game was way more exiting to watch than most NFL games the same year.
I don't think it matters much if guys like Boise state and Hawaii make it against the big guys once or twice . What matters is that it brings pride, and hope to some of those ''little'' teams.
Those Team should be able to play a season in the PAC-10, It might make college football interesting again, instead of seing the same 10 teams all the time.
And John, yes Hawaii is overated!
6 months ago
I don't know, maybe the only way to armchair QB this is to make a single moment in time comparison between a BCS school and a non BCS school. But to me this is a bit of a falacious argument because its comparing apples and oranges. People always come out and say let BSU play in the SEC for a year and they'd only be mid level at best, or if Georgia played in the WAC they'd go undefeated for 9 years in a row. With SEC clout comes SEC talent, and vice versa with the WAC. Would Georgia still draw top prospects after 3 years in the WAC? Wouldn't BSU draw better? But I doubt this type of argument will end anytime soon because it is perpetuated by fanboy's in the BCS conf's and has nothing to do with reality. The reality is that at any given time david CAN beat goliath - BSU DID beat OK - App ST. DID beat MI, etc. etc. etc. and college football is better because of it.
6 months ago
Once again lay off the blue bong water and come back to reality. With SEC clout does not come SEC talent. Vanderbilt, both Miss. schools, Kentucky and South Carolina all play in the SEC and they are at some level bottom feeders. They have pretty much the same talent as BSU difference is that BSU plays a Junior Varsity schedule and these guys play with the big boys. Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern and Minnesota are in the big ten and are bottom feeders. Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech same story for the Big 12. Just being in a BCS conference does not make you a player in that conference. BSU in a BCS conference would be middle of the pack and looking for a 10 win season every now and then. Yes BSU beat OU in the fiesta bowl. That is the glory moment for BSU athletics and the WAC. It was good for college football but it does not mean BSU is ready to play with the big boys week in week out and complete for the national title. You read way too much into your success against the JV teams.
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