Saving small-conference football.
There are no Cinderellas in college football. For some schools in Division 1-A (You’ll never hear the phrase ‘Bowl Subdivision’ out of me), winning a National Championship is literally impossible. The clock can’t strike midnight because nobody ever wound it in the first place.
Last season, Boise State went 13-0. The reward for their efforts? A No. 5 ranking from the AP, No. 6 from the coaches poll, or the equivalent of a warm six-pack of Pabst. Like Utah in 2004, the Broncos managed to secure a berth in a BCS bowl, but still had no chance at the title.
While Oregon State has a solid college football program, when the Beavers are your signature win, you’re missing something.
Some would argue this as a flaw in the BCS system, however I would disagree. This problem is completely fixable within the current system, though radical change is needed. Just how radical you ask?
How about the formation of a new conference?
The problem that schools like Boise State face isn’t that the system is out to get them. The problem is that these small conference powerhouses rarely play more than two or three teams a year that belong on the same field as them. A look at Boise State’s 2006 schedule shows why voters and computers alike would doubt the Broncos. While Oregon State has a solid college football program, when the Beavers are your signature win, you’re missing something.
While it can, and should, be argued that a school like Boise State should schedule higher quality opponents, it’s difficult to secure a game against a top tier school like Ohio State or USC. If the traditional powerhouse wins, it’ll be because the game was against a small conference school. If they lose? All hell breaks loose. So much risk with so little potential reward is not in the best interests of a national power. Occasionally these small conference dynamos can secure a bout with a second tier major conference school, an Oregon or a Boston College, but rarely does a true power agree to play (though TCU and Texas will square off this season).
While the Boises, Marshalls and Utahs of the world are prioritizing football and pouring resources into their programs, they suffer because conference-mates Louisiana Tech, Memphis and San Diego State don’t take football as seriously. The weaker schedules take away the credibility of the program in question and nobody really knows how good they are.
That is the travesty of small conference college football.
If these other schools don’t want to play with the big boys, why let them? I propose that the ten best small-conference schools of the last decade or so stop playing backyard recess football and strap on their jocks. It’s time to play under the lights with the big boys.
It’s time to start the Super 10 conference.
Boise State, Hawaii and Fresno State from the WAC, Marshall and Southern Miss from Conference USA, Miami and Toledo from the MAC and Utah, BYU and TCU from the Mountain West. That is a collection of Rockys, of Davids and of Papales.
If all the schools played a round-robin conference schedule and threw in a major non-conference game, it’d be hard to ignore a 12-0 team out of that bunch. Even without a win against a top-tier program, the overall grind of the schedule would garner respect. While these programs recruit fairly well already, the prospect of a national title can’t hurt. Who doesn’t want to be on the first small school to win a title since BYU in 1984?
There is no reason why this shouldn’t happen immediately. Yes, travel costs would be an issue, but I believe it was Dan Hawkins who once said, “This is Division 1 football!” The extra money the schools would likely bring in would far offset any extra cost from travel.
More daunting would be the facilities cost. In order to graduate into a major conference, its members must first dress the part. State of the art stadiums, practice fields and gyms may be expensive, but Cinderella isn’t going to the ball if she doesn’t have a nice dress and glass slippers.
The store has stocked up on fancy gowns, but until Boise and Co. make the purchase, midnight will come and go without consequence.
Yet again.