Boise State Football: NCAA Sanctions Won't Keep Broncos from BCS Glory

Don't expect Boise State to go the way of fellow NCAA perpetrators USC, Ohio State and Miami, plummeting down the pecking order of college football, at least not while Kellen Moore is around.

The Broncos football team was merely grazed by a bullet from the NCAA that struck at the heart of the school's athletics department. In the grand scheme of things, the fiasco in Idaho resulted in the August ouster of long-time athletic director Gene Bleymeier and three years of probation for Boise State on account of a "lack of institutional control".

As for the football team, Chris Petersen's club will get a slap on the wrist for a series of negligible violations, which included some players giving their teammates the "extra benefit" of sleeping on their living room furniture.

For those infractions, the value of which the program has already repaid in full to charity, the Broncos will have their football scholarship limit reduced from 85 to 82 for each of the next three years, with a similar reduction in contact practices in the spring over the same span.

None of that figures to do anything to impede Moore from competing for the Heisman Trophy in his senior season nor the Broncos from stampeding through their schedule on their way back to the BCS.

If anything, the looming sanctions should give the program greater impetus to play their best and win now. As if the sense of urgency weren't already at an all-time high with Moore about to exhaust his eligibility, those players who will be back next year won't want to wait for the NCAA's restrictions to kick in before they go after a BCS National Championship.

That's what Boise State is gunning for this season. Make no mistake about it, folks. The fourth-ranked Broncos have as good an opportunity as they've ever had to turn the world of college football on its ear and compete for the coveted crystal football.The Broncos have only one quality opponent left on their schedule—No. 23 TCU, at home—and, with their experience (18 seniors) and incredible coaching, should be heavily favored in each of their remaining 11 games.

Thus, NCAA or no NCAA, infractions or no, look for Boise State to handle this latest distraction with ease on the way to another undefeated season and another wrench tossed in the already-dysfunctional BCS machinery.

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