Please, No More Non-BCS Teams With Undefeated Seasons

Don't you hate when a delusional mid-major school has one decent season and then spends the next 20 years comparing themselves to the nation's perennial powerhouses?

In recent years, however, it has become the rule rather than the exception to have a WAC or Mountain West school in a BCS Bowl game.

Truth is, Boise State, Utah, and Hawaii will have moth holes eaten into their undefeated season banners before they can hang another one next to it.

We all know that any team from a non-BCS conference must be ranked in the top 12 at the end of the season to be considered for a BCS bowl berth. We also know that for this to happen, a team like Hawaii or Boise State needs to have an undefeated season.

Why? Because Non-BCS teams play in comparatively weak conferences, even one loss will usually drop a WAC or MWC team out of the top 10 and sometimes the top 20.

Problem is, these schools must give up a firstborn to schedule a Florida, Georgia, Ohio State etc. The current BCS school strategy of dealing with the mid-majors (at least the WAC and Mountain West) is to ignore them completely.

This kind of bridezilla behavior only adds fuel to the fire that BCS conferences and rankings are patently unfair. Living here in the mountain west, I often hear fans say, “those teams are afraid to play us”. Of course there is always a small risk of losing for top ranked teams playing on the Smurf Turf. And since Tennessee would be expected to blow a team like Colorado State out of the stadium, there is almost no upside for scheduling a team like that. They aren't cupcakes, but a loss to them would ruin a season.

In the last five years, USC played both Hawaiiand Brigham Young in home and home exchanges. Brigham Young started a hopeful 2002 season by beating Georgia Tech and then was beat by the Trojans in the second week. Not only did that end BCS Bowl talk, it killed morale and BYU finished with only 4 wins that season. Almost an identical scenario happened the following season. Hawaii followed a similar pattern.

Since almost no SEC teams will play a football game in flyover country, the best hope for dashing the dreams of these teams lies primarily with the PAC 10 teams. Occasionally Notre Dame or Texas will lower themselves enough to take this challenge, if you can call it that.

Colt Brennan's big season came with only unranked Washington challenging their undefeated regular season. We all know how that ended in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

Boise State had unranked Oregon State to challenge them as their non-conference test. Result? Undefeated season, BCS bowl against Oklahoma, and an almost legitimate claim to the national title. It is difficult to argue that a team that beats everyone they play in a given season is undeserving.

Here's a surefire way for the BCS conferences to solidify their dominance among the NCAA Football ranks and stop all the speculation. Try having your top teams schedule quality non-conference games during the regular season.

This season Fresno State and Brigham Young have high hopes of an undefeated season.  Fresno State, who probably has a better team than Hawaii or Boise State had, will lose a game this season. They play Rutgers and Wisconsin in the first four weeks. These are almost legitimate non-conference schools.

BYU has a chance because they don’t have to play any top ranked BCS schools. Is it their fault, or yours.

Schedule them, beat them and stop all the whining.