Yes, It's OK To Say That Boise State Is The Best Team in College Football

Maybe they’ve been building up to this all along. Maybe the last four years were just the clouds gathering for the perfect storm that is the 2010 season. Maybe the Boise State Broncos knew what they were doing every step of the way as they knocked off everyone that was silly enough to cross their path only to be jipped in the end.

Boise State, that little team up there in the far off reaches of Idaho, has arrived, and they are now demanding your respect as the No. 1 team in the nation, whether the college football world wants to give it to them or not.

The “well they don’t play anybody, well they just don’t have the talent to compete” argument isn’t going to fly anymore.

Not when they're putting up top five offense and top five defense in the nation type numbers.

Yes, it was fashionable to downgrade them in years past. You wanted to stick them in the Fiesta Bowl. Fine, they accepted it, beat Oklahoma and TCU, and moved on.

Maybe they knew all along it would come to this. The time would come when you just had to say - OK these guys belong.

That time is now.

If tonight’s game against Fresno State was supposed to be a test, a statement game when the Broncos had the spotlight on them to really cement themselves as legit - they absolutely passed with flying blue and orange colors.

51-0 on a cold, damp night when things weren’t going right early on. Didn’t matter, the Boise machine just kept rolling right along.

Because that’s what they do. Boise State has always showed up in these types of spots. They always dominate, whether anyone wants to take notice and give them credit or not.

This team is no longer little, cute Boise State. They are now one of the truly elite programs in college football.

We’ve watched them grow up over the last few years like a child with Chris Petersen playing Papa. We can still remember that wild night in Arizona on New Years Day of 2007 when Halloween broke out in January and Boise’s tricks helped them gain the treat of bringing down a supposedly superior Oklahoma team 43-42 in overtime.

We rejoiced then, watched Ian Johnson propose to the cheerleader and thought aw, that was something. That's a nice little accomplishment for the school to hang their hat on. But it wasn't so simple. The storybook, fairytale, whatever you want to call it wasn't close to coming to an end on that night.

In a way, it was really only the beginning.

We watched as this team went undefeated over the past two regular seasons only to get shortchanged in the end.

Well, maybe it might finally be time to stop shortchanging them, time for the college football world to come to its senses.

Boise State is at the point where they are simply making opponents look foolish for even daring to step out on the field with them and that is the mark of a true National Champion type team.

There’s no letdown games for these young men a la Oregon’s performance against Cal last weekend. Nobody is accusing quarterback Kellen Moore of shopping his services to the highest bidder.

They are the silent assassins, cutting down everything in their way without making all the unnecessary noise that people seem to get so caught up in these days.

Boise State is fearless. They step onto the field with anyone whether the opponent fancies themselves as a BCS brat or the worst the WAC has to offer. It doesn’t matter who’s in front of the Broncos, they simply view them as another team standing in their way.

And therein lies the beauty of this Boise State monster.

No player gets the accolades they deserve whether it be quarterback Kellen Moore, who deserves to be the Heisman Trophy winner this season, or one of the many other highly skilled players this program has developed - Titus Young, Austin Pettis, Brandyn Thompson, Jerron Johnson, Billy Winn, Nate Potter, you can go on and on rattling off the names.

But that’s what defines them as a team - they’re disrespected individually and as a group and they couldn’t care less.

Rank them four, twenty-four, zero, doesn’t matter

If you want to finally give them their due and put them in the title game - that’s fine. They’ll probably win it. If not, it is what is, they’ll take another Fiesta Bowl handout and go beat up on whatever team you stick them with.

The stage isn't what's important. It's just another opponent who they get the chance to make look foolish.

That’s their attitude. Why everyone in college football doesn’t love and accept that is pretty astonishing.

Are the good old boys down there in the SEC and the folks from the other big bad BCS conferences a little threatened by Boise’s success?

Obviously. You don’t spend your time constantly badmouthing and trying to downgrade something you don’t perceive as a worthy enemy.

I’ll tell you this, when the chips fall, if there’s a one loss BCS team that makes it into the title game over an undefeated Boise State team  - I might give up on college football. The establishment of college football, the business of college football, the sport of college football, whatever order of importance they’re putting it in these days, I’ll simply give up on it.

It’s time to stop pleading this Boise State team’s case. They don’t need it anymore.

They speak for themselves on the field and they do it quite well. Whether college football chooses to finally listen remains to be seen.