USC, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas: Where Do Utah Utes Fit In?

Honestly, they are where they should be. Take nothing away from Utah—finishing undefeated is a tough task, but it does not automatically earn you a national title shot. I commend you and your fans on your season, but you do not deserve to be playing in the BCS National Championship game!

I am so sick of the Utah fans and columnists crying about their team being the “only undefeated,” and therefore they are the only “true” champion. And it is so unfair that we are not No. 1.

First off, Utah’s problem is what we thought USC’s problem was: a weak schedule. However, after watching these bowl games and seeing the Pac-10 go undefeated, I am not so sure we gave them enough credit.

Let’s just dissect Utah’s schedule for a moment: @ Michigan (won by only two points), UNLV (easy game), @ Utah State (easy game), @ Air Force (only won by seven points—are you kidding me?), Weber State (they have a football team?), @ Wyoming (easy game), @ New Mexico (easy game), SDSU (easy game).

Those were their easy games—there were eight of them! Now let’s go on to some respectable opponents. These following games were all played at home, with the exception of the Alabama game at a neutral site: Colorado State @ Utah, BYU @ Utah, TCU @ Utah, Neutral site against Alabama.

Colorado State is like a Purdue in the Big Ten or Stanford in the Pac-10—they are average at best! BYU, if you put them in a BCS conference they would not be ranked, period. TCU is a quality opponent; the only problem they also play in the Mountain West, so it’s not much for the pollsters to look at.

Now at 12-0 with that schedule listed above, how do you feel that you legitimately deserved a shot at the National Title? If Oklahoma, Texas, or Florida played this schedule, would they lose a game? No, they would not.

Especially consider the fact that Utah was not once tested on the road this season, and in their road games against Michigan and Air Force they struggled. Imagine if that would have been Oregon State on the road like USC had to do, or TCU on the road!

USC, in my opinion, deserves to be considered also. They had just came off a big-time win over Ohio State by 32 points and rolled into Oregon State on a high and didn’t come to play in the first half that night. Despite coming all the way back, they were never able to capture the game!

That one game was their only test this season. Nobody else was even competition. Not Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Notre Dame, UCLA, California, nobody!

Now I have heard this over and over again: “USC lost to Oregon State and Utah beat Oregon State, so Utah deserves to be ranked ahead of USC.” Again, not a valid point. USC lost at Oregon State, Utah got Oregon State at home. And that rationale is never logical to use it in sports, ever!

That’s like saying, since Ohio State and Penn State both crushed Michigan, and Utah barely beat Michigan by two points, and since USC crushed both Ohio State and Penn State, USC is now the automatic winner against Utah. It can go both ways, Utah fans; don’t get caught up comparing apples to oranges. I’d love to see you and USC play on a neutral field. My guess is it's not going to be pretty!

That rationale is also as dumb as saying since Notre Dame beat Michigan by more than Utah did, that Notre Dame is better than Utah. Does anyone really believe that? Didn’t think so!

If you people actually watched football you’d understand that different matchups present different problems for different teams! The only way to know who would win the game is if the two teams in question actually go head to head.

Now let's look at Oklahoma and Florida, the two teams actually playing in the National Championship. Just forget about Texas and their head to head win over Oklahoma for the purpose of this argument, even though Texas also deserved a shot at the title more so than Utah did.

Oklahoma had by far the toughest schedule in the nation. As of today they have six ranked teams on their schedule in the polls right now. They also have Kansas at 8-5 and Nebraska at 9-4, both coming off bowl wins! So, most likely both of those teams will creep in the top 25 as well, and that will be a total of eight ranked teams this season, plus one more in Florida in the title game.

Their only loss came by way of No. 3 Texas, who arguably is the best team in college football, and that loss came @ Texas. Again, a road test, something Utah didn’t face all season. Does anyone who has a brain think Utah goes to Texas and wins? Didn’t think so!

The only common opponent on Utah’s and Oklahoma’s schedule was TCU, who Utah beat by three points @ home. But Oklahoma beat that TCU team by 25 points @ home. There’s your comparison if you want to use that rationale, Utah fans!

Now Florida, their only loss came by the way of a botched snap on an extra point, in a game where they just didn’t come to play. That loss was to a team in Ole Miss who just stomped, and I mean stomped, Texas Tech, so it was a very legitimate opponent.

Florida’s other games this season were won by an average of 35.08 points, against the likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Miami Hurricanes, Florida State, South Carolina, and Hawaii. By the way these teams were all in bowl games this year! Count them: nine teams in bowl games that they beat by an average of 35.08 points.

Add their loss to another bowl team, and that makes 10 of the 12 games versus bowl eligible teams.

I don’t know about all of you, but I’d rather be in the Mountain West, agreed?