Big Time Broncos: Does Boise State Finally Deserve a Shot at a Title?

The 2010 Boise State Broncos look to be one of the rare Non-BCS teams to gain national attention and prominence with a preseason top-five ranking this year.

It doesn’t happen very often.

Teams like Hawaii, Utah, TCU, and Boise themselves have had the illustrious “sleeper” tag placed on them in recent years. Yet, rarely are they invited to join the company of the big boys in the top five.

That just goes to show you the remarkable level Chris Petersen has lifted this program to.

You certainly can’t argue that a top-five ranking going into this season isn’t deserved. No team in college football has been as consistent and successful as the Broncos have been during Petersen’s tenure. Plus, this team looks to be loaded once again this year.

So now the question has to be asked: Will they ever get a shot at the big prize? Will we ever see a small school awarded the opportunity to play in the big game?

The sad truth is that it would take a lot of mitigating factors and things falling into place for it to ever happen.

In college football, the reality nowadays is that everything comes down to money. When money is involved so is politics and that politicking can breed a lot of ugliness.

When you have multi-million dollar TV contracts when it comes to the National Championship; the powers at be are going to want the name programs and bigger markets that bring in viewers. They might not be appreciative of the David vs. Goliath aspect that Boise brings to the table.

They simply won’t trust Boise State to bring in the audience.

Is that right? No not at all. It is simply a mirror of life and society. It’s completely unfair.

Let’s get away from the dirty side of the game concerning the money and politicking and look at it from a strictly football standpoint.

There are a lot of gray areas that pop up when trying to compare teams like Boise with BCS schools.

The two big areas are the level of talent and the quality of opponents.

If you go through the roster man for man you’ll realize that it’s true they don’t have the same type of talent and athletes as the big schools. They have some terrific players but the quantity and depth just isn’t there.

That’s to be expected though. A school like Boise State’s resources pale in comparison to those of say a Pac-10 school like UCLA.

They have decent enough facilities but if a top recruit is given the choice of spending four years in California or four years in Boise, Idaho he’ll probably choose the former.

You will probably never see the day of Boise State bringing in a fancy top ten recruiting class. You know what though, that seems to be just fine with them.

I think that’s all the more reason to give Chris Petersen and his staff so much credit. They are taking lesser known players that the bigger schools shunned, coaching them up, and turning them into solid, fundamentally sound, football players.

He’s created a team that plays with a little bit of a chip on it’s shoulder and so far it has worked to perfection.

They aren’t churning out pro players at the rate of a USC or a Texas. Nonetheless, guys like Ryan Clady, Orlando Scandrick, and Kyle Wilson are nothing to shake a stick at.

So if you can’t downplay them for their players what can you downplay them for?

Some would point to their schedule.

It’s true that the WAC is far from a football power conference.

You could say with a good level of certainty that if the Broncos had to go through the rigors of an SEC or Pac-10 schedule they wouldn’t survive unscathed. That’s a fair point.

Still, why would we criticize a team that has no control of their surrounding circumstances? Why are we criticizing a team that is going out there and doing everything they can to prove their legitimate worth?

Every year, Boise is playing as many weekday night games as possible in order to get in front of the eyes of the media and the pollsters. They are going out and not only challenging but beating BCS schools such as Oregon last year.

They are doing it while maintaining a great level of credibility. No scandals, no self-hype, just winning and dominating.

So if they keep up the winning ways and indeed go undefeated again this year, I see no way to justify keeping them out of the big game.

However, I’m sure the higher powers will find some way to keep them out and that is the sad and disappointing aspect of the sport.

I believe that the Legarrette Blount punch last year was a symbol in many ways.

It was the BCS and big time college football slapping the Broncos in the face.

They don’t appreciate that this little school with the gimmicky blue turf up there in the Pacific Northwest won’t fall in line and accept being second fiddle.

They know that no, Chris Petersen’s bunch wouldn’t go undefeated in a BCS conference but when it’s just one game like the National Championship, they can play with anybody.

They’ve proved it. Oklahoma remembers.

That could be the reason you saw Boise State and TCU being wedged together in the Fiesta Bowl last season. Call me a conspiracy theorist but maybe the big time schools aren’t taking to kindly to losing to little ole Boise. They want to continue to oppress them and keep them in their place.

The Broncos don’t seem to be cooperating and accepting that role though.

I for one say screw all of the politicking and downgrading of this team.

Let’s reward a program for being so consistently better and above its counterparts. Let’s reward a team for doing everything asked of them and going about its business in a quality and efficient manner.

Let’s finally give the Boise State Broncos a shot.