Shockingly, Boise State Is Dissatisfied With the “Fundamentally Flawed” Status Quo

↵Boise State puts forward this statement from their president, Bob Kustra:

↵“A college football team with a perfect 14-0 record was not crowned this year’s national champion. That team was Boise State University.↵“The Bowl Championship Series does not determine a true on-the-field national champion as other sports do. The BCS system is unfair in its access, governance and revenue distribution. Reform is necessary to provide the opportunity for the non-automatic qualifying conferences to compete on equal footing. Our invitation to play in a BCS bowl depended on another’s fate. Our payout equaled the lowest of any BCS bowl participant. Our hopes of playing in a BCS bowl each year require near perfection with no guarantee.

↵“The BCS should espouse the values of fairness and access so often invoked in higher education. Boise State has benefitted from the BCS system with two glorious moments at the Fiesta Bowl, but the BCS remains fundamentally flawed. College football and its fans deserve better.”

↵↵It’s not going to work, of course. But the Broncos shouldn’t be complaining about fairness; rather, they should find a way to make things unfair in their favor.

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↵That task starts this fall. The Broncos will return nearly everyone from their unblemished squad this year, and should occupy a lofty enough perch in preseason polls to be able to make a title game with an undefeated season. (Even if they don’t, a win against Virginia Tech in Washington D.C. and a top-ten preseason ranking would make them a compelling one-loss choice.) Finally making the title game is the sort of breakthrough that would give Boise the stature to both bust the BCS and then undermine it with a “We still don’t like this system, but we’ll take the result” media blitz.

↵But Boise’s best chance at truly busting the BCS for good is probably to find a way into the Mountain West, creating a pseudo-superconference with TCU, BYU, and Utah that would be in better position to negotiate for more TV money and an automatic BCS berth.

↵Sometimes, to beat the system, you have to find a way to be the system.

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