One Bronco Nation Under God

Boise State in the Pac-12? Absolutely yes, says college football relegation system

2012-05-17T19:00:20Z

College football relegation - an idea borrowed from European soccer where teams rise and fall from division to division based on win-loss-tie results and not politicking or whimsy - is brilliant . And it is absolutely not going to happen in college football because cash money runs things.

But it never hurts to dream.

Dreaming is exactly what the brain trust at SB Nation's college football headquarters has been doing this week, jiggering relegation divisions and simulating scenarios for every college football team they could think of. Seriously, George Fox is in there somewhere.

What does relegation hold for Boise State? Great things, mostly.

Among the highlights:

Boise State promotes from the Tier 3 Western Athletic Conference to the Tier 2 Mountain West Conference in 2005, the first year of the SBN simulation. Had you suggested that Boise State join the Mountain West for reals back in 2005, you would have been a witch and dunked in the Boise River to prove your witchiness.

Boise State's Mountain West schedule in 2006, its first year of membership, includes the University of Washington, which was relegated for being the Pac-10's last place team in 2005. The Broncos, by virtue of being really good at football, win the Mountain West and promote to the top tier of college football in the Pac-10.

Boise State is in the Pac-10 for the next five years.

In the Pac-10, the Broncos get to play a schedule that includes your typical Pac-10 heavyweights plus TCU, BYU, and Utah.

The 2010 Pac-10 season would have featured a killer conference title race with Boise State, Oregon, and TCU.

Conclusion: If I were running the NCAA, we would have a relegation system yesterday. Who's with me?

Your turn

What do you think of Boise State's results in the relegation discussion? How cool would it be to earn a spot in the Pac-10? Share your thoughts in the comments.

People's Champion: The case for Boise State's NFL draft class of 2012

2012-05-17T15:00:59Z

The fourth and final candidate of the 2012 People's Champion was left up to you, the people, and you people submitted a great idea to nominate the future football stars of Boise State's 2012 NFL Draft class. (For the purposes of this story and to benefit future civilizations whose archaeologists find this website and consider it fact, Kellen Moore will be lumped in with the Boise State draftees because, duh, he should have been drafted.)

This year's class of Boise State pros did something that few people thought BSU players could do: get drafted in bunches. The Broncos had six players selected in the draft, including two who were picked in the first round, which was two more than Miami, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Ohio State. Message board haters are going to have to find a new burn for why Boise State is small potatoes.

In a sense, the 2012 NFL Draft class did a service to Boise State similar to what the Broncos' Fiesta Bowl wins and Top Ten flirting have done in the past. The Draft added legitimacy to the program. Why people are basing legitimacy of a college football team on how many of its players play football well outside of college is beyond me. But it happens. And now Boise State can use it at show-and-tell as yet another way the Broncos compete against bigger, badder schools.

At this point, it's not like Boise State's draft class even has to perform well in the NFL for a People's Champion nomination to be worth it. The six Bronco draftees plus Moore gave Boise State loads of positive press around the NFL Draft. They were on TVs and in newspapers and all over the Internet, blogs, and Bleacher Reports. Their draft stock expanded the Boise State pipeline and gave NFL scouts a reason to book a standing reservation at Boise Holiday Inn Express every spring.

You can't put a price on the contributions of the 2012 draft class to Boise State's past validity, its present Q rating, and its future NFL pipeline. But you can give them this year's People's Champion award.

ed's note: The Idaho State Board of Education is one of four nominees for this year's Bronco Nation People's Champion. A new hero will be crowned on Friday. Vote below, and express your love in the comments.

Poll

In terms of NFL video games, how do you feel about Boise State's 2012 NFL Draft class being this year's People's Champion?

Wake up, Bronco Nation: Boise State football links and things, 5-17-12

2012-05-17T13:50:55Z

BYU game time announced

The game is scheduled for a Thursday night, September 20, in Boise and will kick off at 7 p.m. local time. Hopefully that gives everyone enough time to leave work early and get to the stadium to tailgate.

Boise State one of 10 schools to never have a QB take a regular season NFL snap

Boise State is by far the most well known school. Air Force and Wyoming join Boise State from the MWC. The list also includes a few directional ones. Hopefully Kellen will break in and get Boise State off this list.

No 6 loss teams in bowl games will mean fewer bowls, but which ones?

That's the question that Jason Kirk tried to answer and while I always assumed that the Idaho Potato Bowl would be one to go when bowl attrition happened, that might not be the case. There are a lot more crappy bowls with crappy teams that have played in them. The interesting thing will be to see how the Big East incorporates the Potato Bowl once Boise State moves next year.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to current player and kickoff extraordinaire Trevor Harman. Keep up the good work, buddy!

Late addition to 2012 recruiting class, DB Deontae Florence. After the TCU debacle last year, I...

2012-05-16T21:44:03Z

Late addition to 2012 recruiting class, DB Deontae Florence. After the TCU debacle last year, I think the staff wants as many warm bodies in the defensive backfield as they can get. These are Florence's high school highlights, but he's coming in from College of the Desert JC with 3 years left to play ala Jerrell Gavins.

People's Champion 2012: The case for Dan Wetzel

2012-05-16T15:00:11Z

When it comes to college football playoff advocacy, most of us voice our opinion at the TV or among a group of friends or in a Buffalo Wild Wings to whoever will listen. Dan Wetzel is different. Dan Wetzel wrote a best-selling book and has stumped relentlessly for playoffs via his Yahoo! Sports column and Twitter feed and any other way he can find to cram your brain with pro-playoff propaganda.

It worked. His Death to the BCS book has killed the BCS or at least maimed it so that it needs plastic surgery and will now look more like Alec Baldwin than Swamp Thing. Congratulations to Wetzel and his merry band of playoff proponents. He has made our lives, nay earth, a better place, and the least we could do is give him our imaginary People's Champion award hardware.

Think back to last year (thinking ... thinking ... yay, Kellen Moore plays for us!). When Wetzel was nominated for the inaugural People's Champion, his candidacy was cute, as in look at the widdle guy who thinks he can take down the BCS by having people read books. It wasn't that we didn't take his anti-BCS case seriously. It was that the BCS powers-that-be were so power drunk and stubborn that the thought of a college football world without national championship formulas was ludicrous.

Fast forward 12 months, and we have ourselves the makings of a baby playoff system with no automatic qualifying rules. This is progress for a sport that traditionally deems progress as adding more bowl games with MAC tie-ins.

And we have Wetzel to thank.

Sure, there are others who have pushed for playoffs. And their contributions were vitally important. But many consider Wetzel to be the face of the playoff movement, which makes his People's Champion nomination an easy one. Now how about he writes a book about the down without contact rule? That is my new thorn.

ed's note: Dan Wetzel is one of four nominees for this year's Bronco Nation People's Champion. A new hero will be crowned on Friday. Vote below, and express your love in the comments.

Poll

In terms of alternative CFB postseason ideas, how do you feel about Dan Wetzel being the new People's Champion of Bronco Nation?

Wake up, Bronco Nation: Boise State football links and things, 5-16-12

2012-05-16T13:55:56Z

Big West to "entertain" the idea of Boise State joining

They sent a new membership assessment tool to Boise State. It supposedly helps the Big West gather information about a prospective school. Commissioner Dennis Farrell did say that there was more openness to the idea of Boise State joining this year than last year. Also an interesting note, Hawaii is paying travel subsidies to the Big West. That is surely something that Boise State could do if they get the big payday from the Big East like expected.

Commentary: Lions need Kellen Moore on 53 man roster

Here's a commentary piece from Adam Biggers at Yahoo Sports. He argues that the Lions need to have 3 QB's on their roster and that Kellen Moore should be the third QB. Ultimately I have to believe that this is what the Lions will do. I'm sure coach Jim Schwartz just refuses to commit to anything so early and wants to keep his options open.

LeGarrette Blount feels very confident in his own abilities (HT: blue4areason)

Blount told the Tampa Bay Times that "no one can affect my carries but me." I guess it doesn't hurt to have that kind of confidence when you play in the NFL, but the reality is that Doug Martin can sure affect your carries as well as a Tampa Bay front office that used a first round pick on Martin. Doug was held out of practice on Tuesday for a slight hamstring strain but I'm sure he'll be back soon to affect Blount's carries.

Home games supposedly nixed for playoffs

It's times like these I just have to remind myself that the fact a 4 team playoff is imminent is progress enough and not get worked up by all the stupid decisions they make surrounding that.

People's Champion 2012: The case for the Pat Forde

2012-05-15T15:00:40Z

Last year, I successfully argued for then-ESPN talking head Pat Forde to be named the People's Champion. Now, I find my self pleading his case again, although a change of venue was requested and I'll no longer be making my case from Bristol, Connecticut. Pat Forde left the worldwide leader last November in the wake of Feldmangate (NOT the name of Corey Feldman's new band) and is now covering sundry collegiate sports at everyone's second favorite search engine and sportsworld whistleblower, Yahoo(!). While Forde may have been stripped of his ESPN credentials upon departure, he was able to sneak out the keys to his favorite mass transit conveyance...the Boise State #BUS (that there tic-tac-toe looking doohicky is a "hashtag"...for you non-twitter folk). Frankly, as long as Forde continues to drive the Boise State bus, he'll be tough to beat as People's Champ. I'll explain more after the jump.

Forde's dream run at ESPN was ending just around the time Boise State's second straight dream season was evaporating at the end of a placekicker's leg, but as soon as he'd unpacked his bags at Yahoo! Sports, he went right back to diligently driving the bus, and driving discussions about why Boise State still belonged in a BCS game. And it wasn't just left over contrarianism from his days of playing devil's advocate on ESPN—Forde genuinely seems to have a soft spot for the Broncos...and honestly, we needed a friend last year (and some Xanax).

When December came and the Broncos predictably got stuck in a second-tier bowl game against a second-tier opponent—Forde told everyone that would listen that the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl was one of the "must-watch" games of the postseason. So, why'd Forde blow that horn when even some amongst us were less than enthused about facing the Sun Devils? Because it was another opportunity to see some Boise State magic, why else? See, Forde makes his money discussing title implications and BCS politics just like everyone else...but when others quickly forget about the Broncos if, say, a one-point loss leaves them out of the BCS picture altogether—Forde still sees the thrill in watching a "fun" team beat the tar out of a Pac-10 also-ran...just like us.

So, for seeing the Broncos through lenses at least a smidge blue and orange, I'm still giving my vote for People's Champ to columnist Pat Forde—I trust you'll see it that way as well and vote accordingly.

I rest my case.

Poll

Using your favorite "Forde" pun, how much would you like to see Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde as People's Champion?

Wake up, Bronco Nation: Boise State football links and things, 5-15-12

2012-05-15T13:50:13Z

San Diego State trying to help Boise State find a home for non football sports

San Diego State has been admitted to the Big West for their non football sports and that would be an ideal location for Boise State also. Unfortunately the California-centric league does not want to add the increased travel costs to get to Boise. Hopefully San Diego State can apply the appropriate pressure and get the Big West to reconsider.

Kellen Moore inconsistent at rookie mini camp

Those are the reports from John Kreger from CBSSports.com. It's obviously early but it has got to be tough with so much focus on him.

A look at Florida's offense under Brent Pease

Tomahawk Nation takes a look ahead at what Florida's offense might do under Brent Pease. The best way to do that? By referencing the highly cited article from Smart Football about Boise State's offense before the Virginia Tech game. It's always good to read where people give Boise State credit for not being a gimmick offense.

College of Idaho to reinstate football

Finally a Treasure Valley rival for the Vandals!