BCS Rankings: What Boise State Needs to Sneak into National Championship Game

If Boise State is going to play in the BCS National Championship Game without the benefit of playing in the SEC, the Big 12, the Pac-12, the Big Ten, the ACC or the Big East, it's going to be this year.

The Broncos, now 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain West, currently find themselves at No. 4 in the BCS rankings, with a chance to move up to No. 3 by the time LSU and Alabama are done beating up on each other on November 5th.

Even so, the road to New Orleans will be filled with all sorts of obstacles for Chris Petersen's team. Rightly or wrongly, the computers and the pollsters don't figure to do any favors for the Smurf Turfers, though, with some strong play and a little bit of help from teams across college football, they may yet be the first "mid-major" school to play for the crystal football.

Win Each Remaining Game Handily

Before the Broncos can even begin to worry about what anyone else is doing, they need to take care of their own business and do it with some authority. Boise's strength of schedule won't get any stronger from here on out, with games at 1-5 UNLV and home against 0-7 New Mexico.

The Broncos' other three opponents—TCU, San Diego State and Wyoming—are actually pretty good football teams, but you can bet Kellen Moore and company won't get the benefit of the doubt if their wins over those teams are anything less than mind boggling in severity.

At this point, Boise State's best bet is to run up the score at every opportunity. Such a strategy won't earn the Broncos any fans on the opposing sideline or score many points for sportsmanship, but it will give voters pause when considering whether to drop them behind other teams from bigger conferences or move them up when vacancies in the Top 3 arise.

Hope the Rest of the Unbeaten Teams Slip Up

While the Broncos are busy rolling through the Mountain West, they'll need to keep their fingers (and toes) crossed that most, if not all, of the other top teams run into rough spots along the way.

That means rooting for Oregon to stand up to Stanford, for Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma State in the Bedlam game, for Clemson and Kansas State to get crushed in their conferences and, of course, for LSU and Alabama to do enough damage to each other to knock both of them out of the way.

That may seem like a lot to ask for, but with the way the college football landscape was shaken up this past Saturday, with losses by Wisconsin and Oklahoma, it's as clear as it's ever been that anything is possible when it comes to pigskin.

Root For Georgia

Now, if the Broncos had to pick just one team to support in their spare time, they would undoubtedly choose Georgia.

The Bulldogs, now at No. 22 in the BCS standings, still stand as the only quality opponent that Boise State has beaten this season. The Broncos seemed to finally have silenced their critics by soundly beating an SEC opponent on southern soil.

Unfortunately, the Dawgs had to go out and lose to South Carolina at home the following week, dropping them from the polls and leaving the Smurf Turfers looking less impressive in the process.

However, with wins in each of its last five games, Georgia has climbed back into the Top 25 and has an excellent shot to win the SEC East, thanks to a date with Arkansas remaining on the Gamecocks' schedule.

If all goes according to plan, the Dawgs will end up back in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship, with the ability to kill two birds with one stone for Boise—by strengthening the Broncos' win over them and by eliminating the SEC West champion from the national title race.