Broncos, Horned Frogs closing in on busting BCS

For all you playoff proponents and BCS bashers, you all just lost ... because Boise State won.

If you were watching closely Saturday, it became obvious that the long-suffering Broncos -- suffering for at least three years since that Fiesta Bowl -- are close to being back in the BCS. There are a bunch of asterisks attached and hurdles to clear, but Boise's prospects improved significantly when USC and Miami lost. That gave two major bowl staples three losses and some lovely parting gifts.

Can you hear us now? Wideout Titus Young and Boise State are 10-0. (US Presswire)

Thanks for playing, now stand back and watch the blue turf boys play. Boise State is one of the few options left to fill BCS bowls.

For now, there are few excuses for the BCS bleaters to complain. Boise State stayed undefeated after annihilating Idaho while other, bigger, older, more accomplished programs have been eliminated. Blame parity, coaching, recruiting or whatever. We're about to enter a new era of the BCS, if not college football.

Counting TCU, this could be the first time in the 12-year history of the BCS that two non-BCS programs are part of the five-bowl promised land. That's a good thing, right? Depends on which side of the hedges you're on.

Short of eight-team playoff -- which might be decades away -- there is no way to sort out the six current undefeated teams. We'll have to be happy with small victories. At least the deserving teams are in this year.

"It appears that they're slotted right now," said the man Boise has to thank for its current situation, WAC commissioner Karl Benson.

For the bowl execs, they're wondering about hotels, restaurant reservations and TV ratings. Boise (10-0) still has to win out, but judging by the destruction left behind on Saturday, there isn't much doubt it will. The Broncos trounced Idaho 63-25 and showed some BCS backbone for the first time, perhaps, in the Chris Petersen era. Boise's coach went for two after the first two touchdown and kept the foot on the accelerator the entire game.

Maybe Petersen realized, finally, that it's worth running it up when you're being ignored.

"I think we'll probably drop about three or four notches," he said sarcastically after the game.

The reality is that Broncos held steady at No. 6 in the BCS standings. Their chief competition for a BCS bowl now is Oklahoma State (8-2). If the Cowboys win out against Colorado and Oklahoma, there is an outside chance they could trump Boise for the BCS. The prospects aren't good. Oklahoma State started Saturday No. 19 in the BCS. To be eligible for an at-large berth, a team must win at least nine and be ranked in the top 14.

Only one non-BCS team is able to qualify unless there are no other eligible teams from BCS conferences. All that can be trumped, however, by the whims of a particular bowl. That's why after arranging the 1 vs. 2 championship, the BCS pretty much steps aside and lets bowls have control.

Either Cincinnati (fifth in the BCS) or Pittsburgh (ninth) could get in as Big East runner-up as well. But for now, two teams outside the power six conferences look like they're going to bring undefeated records to the BCS. TCU made its loudest statement with a 55-28 victory over Utah.

Boise also could be nudged out if Texas is somehow upset in the Big 12 title game. Again, not likely. Nebraska or Kansas State from the North Division are likely to be prohibitive underdogs.

The other BCS at-large berths seem to be spoken for by the SEC (Alabama-Florida loser) and the Big Ten (Iowa or Penn State).

For Boise, though, this is a story 13 years in the making. Back in 1996, the program was playing in the Big West, in its first year in Division I-A. Benson had bigger issues in his own conference. Upsets in the old Bowl Alliance had knocked BYU, then in the WAC, out of a major bowl spot. The Cougars ended up 14-1 after winning the Cotton Bowl.

Things were so unorganized back then that BYU coach LaVell Edwards was flown to New York for a network appearance announcing that his program had been picked for the Bowl Alliance (Fiesta, Sugar, Orange bowls). Instead Penn State was picked.

BYU, No. 5 at the time, was literally punished because its fans don't drink. Bowl executives like large numbers out of town fans who plunk down big money for hotels and in restaurants.

"They limoed him [Edwards] to the hotel and the studio and BYU doesn't get selected," Benson remembered. "When he didn't get picked, LaVell walked out and he had to take a cab to the hotel."

That led the WAC presidents to go to Capitol Hill to ask legislators to intervene for better access to the major bowls. Sound familiar? Those legislators finally told the WAC and college football to basically work things out for themselves. But that planted the early seed for what is now the BCS.

"It was almost the exact same challenge that the Mountain West did [in the offseason]," Benson said. "There was political pressure, there was the threat of anti-trust. We retained an anti-trust law firm. I testified. The Senate said to the two parties, 'You guys go back and figure something out.'"

For better or worse, two years later we had the BCS.

In 2003, Tulane president Scott Cowen, like Benson before him, lobbied for more access for non-BCS schools. The BCS commissioners relented, creating a fifth bowl to accommodate a non-BCS qualifier. The alternative was a "plus one" that would have added a championship game to be played at the conclusion of the bowls.

Since that widened access, non-BCS programs have gone 3-1 against the big boys. Utah broke through in 2004. Boise State made national noise three years ago when it beat Oklahoma in what is still referred to by some as the greatest bowl game ever. It is headed toward its third undefeated season in the past four years.

In that sense, the BCS that is so despised by playoff proponents has given the likes of Boise its greatest asset at this point -- credibility. ESPN's GameDay has been to Mountain West campuses three of the past four weeks. TCU is in the national championship conversation.

For now, it seems locked out with Texas, Alabama and Florida continuing to win. Thankfully for the Frogs, independent polls such as those run by AP, the National Football Foundation and the Football Writers Association of America could still award TCU a national championship trophy.

To the casual fan, it will be interesting. To Sen. Orrin Hatch, it will be a breakthrough. To John Junkers of the world it will be ... different. Junker is the Fiesta executive director whose bowl has done more than its share of taking first-time, non-BCS schools -- Utah in 2004, Boise in 2006.

If Boise was passed over again, Hatch, among others, would blow his hatch. Does the BCS want the aggravation of more Congressional intervention? On the flip side, the Justice Department recently gave a tepid response to Hatch's request for a look into the legality of the BCS.

Do you tempt fate, BCS commissioners, or do the right thing? It's more than a coincidence that this week the BCS commissioners will meet in Washington, D.C. Among the items on the agenda: Hiring a PR firm. There's no better PR right now than Frogs and Broncos in the BCS.

How the BCS bowls look at this moment (*--automatic berth as BCS conference champion):

BCS title: Florida/Alabama* vs. Texas*
Comment: Texas has Kansas, Texas A&M and either Kansas State or Nebraska to beat before getting to Pasadena. Florida and Alabama will meet in the SEC Championship Game. The winner plays for it all. The loser goes to the Sugar Bowl.

Rose: Ohio State* vs. Oregon/Stanford/Arizona/Oregon State
Comment: Five consecutive years of at least a share of the Big Ten title for the Buckeyes. This is Jim Tressel's first Rose Bowl, though. It's still a mess in the Pac-10. Oregon and Arizona still control their own destinies and meet this week.

Orange: Georgia Tech/Clemson/Boston College* vs. TCU
Comment: Picking Cincinnati was somewhat of a nightmare last year. The Orange Bowl was one of the lowest rated of the BCS era. It looks like a Georgia Tech-Clemson championship game in the ACC. The Orange probably favors having Clemson, which last won the ACC in 1991. TCU makes better sense in the Sugar Bowl (playing a higher-ranked team), but if it's not for a national championship, what difference does it make?

Sugar: Florida/Alabama loser vs. Cincinnati*
Comment: This will make it consecutive years of Hawaii, Utah and Cincinnati in New Orleans. Wow. Sugar could be getting Brian Kelly in his final game before he takes the Notre Dame job.

Fiesta: Penn State vs. Boise State
Comment: Penn State is always a good bowl draw, especially in the desert. Who knows, this might be JoePa's last bowl game? The Nits still have some work to be done. It came into Sunday 19th in the BCS and still needs to win a season finale at Michigan State. Boise State is almost locked in here because it's not a good fit east of Glendale.