It seems like every year there’s one above-average team from a mid-major conference that notches an unlikely win against one BCS conference team and then gets to spend the remainder of the season being called “Cinderella” or a “BCS Buster.” Last year, that team was Northern Illinois. This year it appears that the team will be Utah.
Who? Utah. Yes, that’s right… sure, they beat Texas A&M in the season opener. Congratulations to them for that. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only real football team they have on their schedule. Oh, sure… they beat Arizona, who has only one win on the season, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. So what’s the cumulative win/loss of the opponents that Utah has played? 10 wins, 13 losses. Only one team, Texas A&M, is above .500. If we look at who those 10 wins have been against, it’s not so impressive: Texas A&M has tallied wins against Wyoming, Clemson, and Kansas State — not an unimpressive list — but the rest of the teams have combined to beat Northern Arizona, Idaho, UNLV (twice), Eastern Washington, Texas Tech, and New Mexico State… not exactly what I’d call BCS-caliber opponents.
In fact, even if you COMBINE the teams that Utah has beaten, and the teams that their opponents have beaten[#], you STILL can’t come up with a schedule half as difficult as those from a BCS conference.
The fact that a team like Utah is even being talked about as a legitimate BCS contender is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the BCS system. As Ben Prather points out at Fanblogs, if they win out, they’ve got a decent shot at a BCS bowl. (Provided that real BCS teams beat each other up like they usually do)
**IF** Utah finishes the season undefeated they should work their way up to the top 5 and an automatic BCS berth. Two Fiesta Bowl representatives where present at last weeks New Mexico game to scout out this Utah team. When asked about what they thought about Utah playing in the Fiesta Bowl, they indicated they would be very interested in an undefeated Utah playing a Big East Champion (West Virginia) in their Bowl game. Utah has a history of traveling 13000-15000 fans to the Las Vegas Bowl when they finished second in the conference. They traveled 13000 across the country to Memphis last year. How many Utah fans ( in a year with team record shattering ticket sales ) would make the short trip to Tempe Arizona for their #4-5 team in a BCS Bowl? If tickets are available, I will travel from Florida to see that. (Utah can beat any team from the Big East. )
I’m not impressed. Even with Alabama’s cake walk of a schedule this year, Utah wouldn’t keep their undefeated record through half the season if they were the ones playing it. These non-BCS schools constantly complain about not getting respect when they go undefeated… but it’s like a High School point guard complaining that college scouts aren’t paying any attention to him after he wins a one-on-one tournament against Junior High kids.
totally bizarre, your take on Utah. The only team they might not beat this year is USC and that’s doubtful. Oklahoma is a joke, Wisconsin proved to be a laugher, Texas could be left holding their jockstraps and California would be lucky to find the parking lot let alone a win. Utah, this year and last, has the best qb in the nation. Last year they beat both Cal and Oregon and this year have a much better team. Why do they play a weak schedule? Well, if you were from one of the BCS conferences would you play Utah? And he handed your head?
Lucas… step out of dream world for a minute. Utah has played one game worth mentioning this year, and it was the first game of the year.
Utah doesn’t have the depth or experience to beat USC, OU, Auburn, Georgia, or half of the other top teams in BCS conferences. Toss Utah in a BCS conference and they wouldn’t even make the title game, let alone the top 10 in the nation.
Gooooooo Cocks!