What Could Be? Boise State Broncos in The BCS Title Game

For the first time in the history of the Bowl Championship Series, a ''mid-major'' school is lining up for their shot at a National Championship appearance.

With a top-five ranking in hand, the Boise State Broncos have a legitimate shot to come to Pasadena in search of a title, not only for their university, but for all of the outsiders in the BCS hypocrisy.

Is it possible? Oh yes. Not only possible, but hinging on more and more probable every week.

Currently Boise State is behind the following teams: Florida, Texas, Alabama, and LSU.

Alabama and LSU play each other this season, so put a loss on one of those teams.

Alabama and Florida will likely play in the SEC Championship. Hang a loss on one of those teams.

Texas and Oklahoma will play each other, and Sam Bradford will be back. The Sooners have a shot to play spoiler to their rival.

That's all it should take, the only upset Boise will be looking for is Texas to lose to somebody in the Big 12.

The rest is inevitable.

But what could the impact of a Boise State National Championship appearance create? We'll have to go back in time to figure this out.

In 1984, the undefeated BYU Cougars coached by LaVell Edwards were crowned National Champions by numerous publications, including the Associated Press. As you can imagine, this still doesn't sit well with College Football historians.

It only got crazier in 1990.

In 1990, two teams claimed stake to the National Championship, Colorado and Georgia Tech. Each squad had their own argument to why they deserved the title and it led to a myriad of National Champions in major college football.

People didn't like small schools as championship contenders.

From 1991-1997, the last years before the BCS there were 16 National Championship football teams, that's an average of over two teams a season!

So, to solve all of these problems a system was put in that we love like our red-headed stepchild, the BCS. The BCS has done an excellent job at removing the little guys from the title games, instead we get Ohio State thrashings and USC versus Big Ten games annually.

Truly revolutionary.

Now with Boise State knocking on the door to a title appearance we are wondering what effect the Broncos will have on our history...

If the Broncos win

Let's just say that Boise State follows in the footsteps of every BCS buster except Hawaii and wins their game. Will we have college football historians cleverly forgetting 2009, a la BYU in the early 1990s?

Will we have the fans of major conferences call ''shenanigans'' based upon strength of schedule?

Or will the dream of college football fans be a reality? A playoff for the National Championship coming as a result?

But wait. Who says Boise can win? What if they lose?

If the Broncos lose

Let's say Boise pulls a Hawaii and gets beaten—even blown out—nothing bad will happen to college football.

How, you ask?

The first issue of college football that will be resolved is the strength of schedule issue. Teams from smaller conferences will be forced to schedule BCS squads to gain respect. In turn, this will create a fair platform for BCS teams to avoid the cupcake games that do nothing more than pad their statistics.

Teams who play games against TCU, BYU, Boise, Houston, Utah, etc. will receive more credit for their willingness to take on challenges out of conference. With this system in place, college football will not have as many laughable Temple versus Penn State types of games.

Teams who chose not to challenge themselves, such as Penn State this year, will receive even less respect following a loss.

You can look at Oklahoma for an example of what happens when you challenge yourself out of conference.

The next issue that will be resolved will be a system that can keep the mid-majors out of the National Championship. This could mean simply a tweak to the BCS system, but I believe an overhaul is in the works.

The truth is that even major bowl games are not easy to see. Last year's Orange Bowl had tickets for sale for $5.00 on StubHub.com.

A playoff system will quickly sell out venues the size of the new Texas Stadium. These games will finally have a value, they would become the stepping stones to finding a true National Champion.

So what should College Football fans hope for? I say hope for Boise State, TCU, and Houston to keep their winning ways going. Root for the Broncos to appear in the BCS title game.

No matter the results of the game, change will come from this landmark event. Let's hope the change will be better than the last time a ''mid-major'' won a National Championship.