Could No. 1 happen for Boise State next season?
The second 14-0 team in modern college football history is back in Idaho, ready to watch Texas and Alabama play for the national title. In the BCS universe, the Boise State Broncos might as well be on Mars. If you’re not in the Rose Bowl on Thursday night, forget about the national championship.
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By Andrew Bagnato, Associated Press
The second 14-0 team in modern college football history is back in Idaho, ready to watch Texas and Alabama play for the national title.
In the BCS universe, the Boise State Broncos might as well be on Mars. If you’re not in the Rose Bowl on Thursday night, forget about the national championship.
But while the Broncos were left out of the mix this time, they might not be all that far from a shot at the national title.
“Nothing happens overnight,”
Indeed, it could happen within the confines of the oft-vilified BCS, even as congressmen call for change and playoff advocates launch a televised ad campaign.
The Broncos return 21 of 22 starters next season. And with
Virginia Tech and
“If we could beat the teams on our schedule, we would jump dramatically,” Petersen said.
Playoff advocates argue that the Broncos shouldn’t have to wait
to play for No. 1. Their resume, which includes a win over Pac-10 champion
But not even the Broncos were demanding a shot at the
championship after they beat TCU with a workmanlike, somewhat uninspiring,
performance. Asked if he thought
Maybe.
That’s a step up from “never,” which would have described
The Broncos have even made progress from January 2007, when some
regarded
Now that the Broncos are 2-0 in the BCS — matching the combined
victory total for
The only question is whether they’ll have a chance to play for the big prize.
A playoff might make that possible — assuming the WAC and its ilk would be guaranteed a slot.
“I know a lot of people think they have the perfect answer, but when you put it down on the paper and try to figure out how to get those things done, there’s problems with it,” Petersen said.
By dodging the playoff debate, Petersen took a sharply
contrasting approach from the previous Fiesta Bowl winner. After
One year later, Brown doesn’t have to stump, having earned a berth in this year’s title game, however narrowly. But Brown still wants see a different system, even if he hasn’t offered a foolproof alternative.
“When I voice my opinion, usually someone has an opinion of my opinion and then it goes away the next day and we go back to the system,” Brown said this week.
“I don’t think what we’ve got is best for college football,” he said. “I’d like to keep working and tweaking and see if we can get the best teams to play at the end.”
The BCS is all about tweaking. Perhaps the most important tweak
came when it bowed to congressional pressure and added a fifth game, improving
access for
The Broncos have made the most of that access, as has Mountain West
Conference power
Anyone remember whom the Utes beat by 14 points in the Sugar Bowl a year ago?
Oh, yeah:
With every victory by a BCS buster, the possibility of one of them playing for a national title seems a little less remote.
Consider the company
The first was
Petersen was asked if this was a dream season for the Broncos or if there was still “one more thing” out there for the Broncos.
“It is a dream season because we can only beat the teams on our schedule,” Petersen said. “And so we don’t even think about anything other than that.”
This time next year, they may have to.
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AP Sports Writer Jaime Aron contributed to this report.