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After the University of Utah football team finished as the nation's only undefeated team by beating the University of Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, the Mountain West Conference felt they had a strong case to obtain a permanent automatic BCS bowl bid. However, the BCS committee did not feel the same way.
With another undefeated performance this past season from a MWC team, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs this time, it has caused many people around the nation to wonder when, if ever, the BCS will finally give the MWC the automatic BCS bid they deserve.
On one side of the argument, numerous college football fans believe the MWC only has three good teams--Utah, TCU and Brigham Young University. With teams like Colorado State University, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and San Diego State University rounding out the bottom of the conference, those fans just don't think the MWC is strong enough from top to bottom to deserve an automatic bid.
However, along with many other college fans across the nation, I find myself standing on the other side of the fence concerning this debate. I feel the MWC's 2-1 record in BCS bowl games the past five years has clearly shown its best teams can match up well against some of college football's elite. Additionally, with 5 of its 9 teams being eligible for bowl games this past season, it's hard for anyone to say the MWC is a top-heavy conference.
This issue wouldn't even be relevant today without Utah's coming out party in 2005. With coach Urban Meyer in his final season with the Utes before moving on to lead the University of Florida, the team was able to go undefeated, giving them the MWC's first ever BCS bowl berth. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Utah surprised the nation with an overwhelming 35-7 Fiesta Bowl victory over the heavily favored University of Pittsburgh.
With a single BCS victory under its belt at that point, it was too early to begin discussing automatic BCS bowl bids. Yet, with the aforementioned undefeated season and Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama in 2009, Utah finally gave the MWC a legitimate argument in its quest for a permanent bid.
Still, there was at least one nationally recognized critic who wasn't ready to jump on the MWC bandwagon. According to an article by Christian Carlson on www.universe.byu.edu, Dan Patrick, best known for his 17 years with ESPN as an anchor and radio broadcaster, said a reason Utah won the Sugar Bowl was because Alabama wasn't motivated to play a game against a non-BCS opponent.
While Patrick has been one of my favorite ESPN personalities, I can't help but feel his argument concerning the legitimacy of Utah's second BCS victory is absolutely ludicrous. I don't see how you can blame Alabama losing simply on the fact Utah is in a non-BCS conference. No matter who they were playing, Alabama, its players and its coaching staff should have come prepared to play hard. They didn't and they lost. It's as simple as that.
If the MWC's five-year run of producing BCS quality teams isn't enough to give them an automatic bid, it might be smart for fans to look at the conference's overall success during the 2009 season. TCU, BYU, Utah, Air Force and Wyoming all won at least six games, the required amount to be eligible for a bowl game berth. Even more, TCU became the third MWC to earn a BCS bowl bid in the past five years, though they ended up losing 17-10 to Boise State University in the Fiesta Bowl.
TCU's loss to Boise State turned out to be the MWC's only loss during the bowl season, as BYU, Utah, Air Force and Wyoming were all able to pull off victories. The MWC's 4-1 bowl record was good enough to earn them the Bowl Challenge Cup for the third time in six seasons. Since the award's creation in 2002, the MWC has won it more times than any other conference in college football.
So, if the MWC is such a top-heavy conference, I must ask why there are at least four or five teams making it to bowl games each season? Furthermore, I am inclined to point out that not only are these teams earning bowl bids, but they are showing they belong there by consistently beating whatever opponents are thrown at them. This alone should make it easy to see the MWC really does deserve an automatic BCS bowl bid.
With the popularity of the BCS system at an all-time low, I strongly feel it could only benefit--and possibly gain a few much-needed fans--by giving the MWC an automatic bid. If college football wants to seriously rank right up there with the popularity of the NFL, then I think it is crucial for them to make the necessary changes to make its fans happy.
With all this said, I think the BCS must give the MWC an automatic bid--and soon. If not, there's at least one fan college football might lose out on in the very near future.
I agree with the MWC becoming an automatic BCS qualifier with an additional team being added to make it tougher. With wins againt conferences such as the Pac 10, ACC, and the Big 12 this year is a step towards the MWC showing how they can compete with the so called big boys. Also Utah with their undefeated seasons and TCU's. But the big six conferences argue that divisions such as the SEC plays tough games every week unlike MWC where there are only a couple good teams cbssporst.com. I agree with some of the conferences but not all because as of now the MWC finished first in the bowl game challenge this year and finished better than the ACC and Big 10 last year. My solution to the disrespect the MWC gets would be to take out a bottom team such as SDSU and replace them with Boise State so the conference would be stronger and continue to schedule the automatic qualifiers.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Mountain West Conference should obtain a permanent automotive BCS bid. While the teams that make up the MWC may not all be incredible teams, those teams deserving of such a bowl bid should have a guarantee of obtaining a spot in the bowl. I thought your point concerning 5 out of the 9 teams in the MWC being eligible for bowl games in the past season contributed to your point that the MWC is strong enough to deserve an automatic bid. If an automatic bid to the BCS would make college fans happy, I think they should consider giving the MWC a bid. One question I had after reading your blog was, what are the requirements for obtaining an automatic bid to the BCS? Are there any requirements that would prevent the MWC from being awarded an automatic bid?
ReplyDeleteOne user commented on a CBS Sports message board concerning this topic. The user commented that the BCS berths were between five and seven. This user pointed out that the MWC could obtain an automatic bid because there are currently only six conferences that have them, which would leave on up for grabs. (http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/messages/chrono/19132207/0/0/19135185) The majority of the users on this forum board were in favor of the MWC receiving an automatic bid and if things go the way fans want them to, I imagine the conference will see a BCS bid soon.
I agree that the Mountain West Conference should get an automatic bid to the BCS bowl games. But, I also think the MWC does not have an automatic bid because many people throughout the nation believe that the MWC cannot bring enough fans to the game...but from growing up in Wyoming, I feel there is always a huge following behind the conference teams and they would provide the needed attendance. I know several people who went to the Wyoming bowl game and met New Mexico fans who were at the game to cheer on a Mountain West team win. With this said, I believe the fans in the Mountain West would attend any bowl game because with a win from the game, every school benefits. I also agree that the MWC has shown they can produce the bowl eligible teams because the conference teams have proven this past season that we can take 5 teams to the bowl games, I don't think it should matter what games they went to, but instead the fact that we can take 5 out of the 9 conference schools to the games. I think as a conference we could push this a little more and prove to the other conferences that do have automatic bids, which the MWC should as well.
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