Hey Utah, Would You Please Keep it Down?
By Scott Burks
The
Utah Utes are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore. Utes
fans are all up and arms, sending mass emails and petitions to AP voters
hoping to convince those voters to rank Utah #1 in the final AP poll. Hell,
even the STATE of Utah’s Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is getting into the
act by investigating the Bowl Championship Series for a possible violation
of federal antitrust laws after the undefeated Utes team was left out of the
national title game for the second time in five years. He goes on to claim
that the BCS unfairly puts schools like Utah, which is a member of a
conference (Mountain West Conference) without an automatic bid to the
lucrative bowl games, at a competitive and financial disadvantage.
To that, and the rest of the complaints, I say
this: STOP IT! Are you kidding me? Look, I can go on about why the
Mountain West Conference is considered a non-BCS conference (lack of marquee
competition outside of BYU and TCU), why Utah should schedule tougher
out-of-conference opponents to compensate for their weak in-conference
competition (no more Utah State on the sked), and why Utah wouldn’t have a
snowball’s chance in hell against Oklahoma or Florida on a neutral field.
Instead, here is my walk-off shot: the Mountain West Conference, along with
the other non-BCS conferences, AGREED to the criteria of the BCS rules and
regulations. Among those regulations are the following:
The top two teams are given automatic berths
in the BCS National Championship Game.
The champion of a BCS conference (ACC, Big 12,
Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, and SEC) is guaranteed an automatic BCS bowl bid.
The highest ranked champion of a non-BCS
conference will receive an automatic berth if:
-
It is
ranked in the top twelve, or
-
Ranked in
the top sixteen and higher than another BCS Conference champion.
-
No more
than one such team from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the
Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, and the Western
Athletic Conference shall earn an automatic berth in any year.
A special case is made for independent Notre
Dame, which receives an automatic berth if it finishes in the top eight.
See that Utah Ute fans? The only people you
should be mad at are the Mountain West Conference commissioner and
presidents of those schools for agreeing to those regulations set forth by
the BCS. So here is my advice to the Ute contingent: don’t hate the playa
(the BCS), hate the game (the MWC commish and the school presidents who
signed off on this). Oh, and QUIT WHINING!
Comments:
Date: Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Time: 06:37:30 PM
Comments:
3 things...
#1. The MWC has petitioned the NCAA to make the MWC BCS-Eligible.
They've already WON 2 BCS Bowl Games (Alabama & Pitt)
#2. If you're gonna bring up Utah State, then make sure you bring up
Michigan (no one knew they were gonna be that bad when they scheduled
them) and Oregon State (who happened to finish 9-4 and beat USC) plus
you totally short-sighted Air Force who is always a 8-10 win team.
3. You must not have seen Boise State beat Oklahoma and Utah just beat
then #1 Alabama...
So, I feel like your argument isn't valid, but I agree with you that
even they probably aren't totally deserving, but they should be, and an
opportunity is deserved.
Come by and check out the website, I made a bunch of changes and I think
you'll like it, maybe I'll let you write an article one good time!
-Ed.
www.edthesportsfan.com
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