Boise State has its benchmark win, but the BCS debate will rage on

Boise State's win against Virginia Tech on Monday night poured rocket fuel on a debate that raged all summer. One camp views Boise State as an excellent team capable of beating just about anyone in the country. The other believes the Broncos are merely a smurfed-out version of Ole Miss.

Camp No. 1 contends that if Boise State were a member of a power conference -- with the resources and the access to recruits that membership entails -- the Broncos would still be an elite team deserving of a spot in the national title game. Camp No. 2 contends that these Broncos would lose three or four games if they had to play an SEC schedule this season. Both of these scenarios are purely hypothetical. No power conference wants Boise State, and the Broncos' 2010 schedule is what it is. Here's the reality: All 15 teams that have faced Boise State since the 2009 season began have lost. That list includes last year's Pac-10 champ, another top 10 team from '09 and the team a lot of people picked to win the ACC this year.

If you have a problem with the quality of Boise State's schedule, write your favorite school's athletic director and tell him to schedule the Broncos so your team can prove its superiority. Boise State's Gene Bleymaier anxiously awaits your AD's call. If your school doesn't have the guts to schedule Boise State, kindly be quiet.

Remember, Boise State is only exploiting the idiotic system currently in place to choose the two teams that play for the national title. Boise State found the loophole in a system designed to keep the little guys out of the national title game. The loophole is this: If a team starts the season ranked high enough, that team stands an excellent chance of reaching the BCS title game as long as it goes undefeated -- regardless of the quality of its schedule -- and has at least one touchstone win.

There remains a simple, lucrative solution to this issue: Decide the national champion the same way the other NCAA divisions do -- with a 16-team playoff. Boise State would have to beat three elite opponents to reach the national title game, eliminating all concerns about the schedule. Until that happens, the debate will rage.

On to the rankings...

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