Already tagged as the original BCS busters, the Utes could go down as the team that crashed the whole damn system in 2008.
After a convincing 31-17 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, many members of the media, including several national pundits, pinned and argued for Utah8212;the nation’s only undefeated team8212;to be ranked No. 1. It didn’t happen.
The Florida Gators, ranked No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series polls at the end of the season, beat No. 1 Oklahoma 24-14 in a BCS Championship game that left many Utah fans and national voters wondering how the Utes would have faired in the BCS Championship game.
But if life were made of what-ifs, we’d all be millionaires. As it stands, the BCS chairmen and the sponsors of the bowl games are content to keep that distinction all to themselves.
After the final AP poll was released late Thursday night, Utah could only muster a No. 2 in the polls, collecting 16 first-place votes and finished 87 points behind No. 1 Florida, and 38 points ahead of No. 3 USC.
Despite being 13-0 and beating the Crimson Tide by a bigger margin than the recently crowned national champions did (Florida beat Alabama 31-20 in the Southeastern Conference Championship game) Utah couldn’t do enough to outlast a tired old college football stigma: that a team outside college football’s “power” six conferences isn’t good enough to be crowned the best team in the land.
That could all change in the near future and Utah will go down as a pioneer of that movement.
Head coach Kyle Whittingham, who has a vote in the Coaches Poll, said enough is enough. Despite being required to vote Florida No. 1 under the guidelines of the American Football Coaches Association, one person voted Utah No. 1 in the coaches poll. The guilty party was likely Whittingham, but the Utes still finished No. 4 in that poll8212;14 points behind Texas and 18 behind USC8212;despite the effort.
But this season, Utah hasn’t just emerged as a mouthpiece for non-BCS teams. They have become an example of the need for change.
Utah, which started the season unranked in both the Coaches and AP polls, never had a shot at the National Title to begin with. If the BCS wants to be responsible for crowning the NCAA National Championship, shouldn’t everyone have at least some chance under its system?
Fans, coaches and players of college football have been fervent about the need for a playoff system for some time. Every year a different nuance arises that the BCS system can’t account for. Utah is this year’s anomaly, and they are at a spot that’s going to be hard to ignore. The list of evidence that suggests they should have had a shot at the sport’s ultimate prize has been explained and presented ad nauseam. Four of Utah’s defeated opponents finished in the top 25 in the nation. Two came from BCS schools and the other, in TCU, finished at No. 7 in the country in both polls.
The Mountain West Conference had three teams finish in the top 25, and two finish in the top seven. The Pac-10 had three teams finish in the top 25, but none higher than Utah, and TCU finished higher in the top 10 than Oregon. The same goes for the Big Ten. Other BCS conferences like the ACC and the Big East didn’t even field a team that finished in the top 14. Still they all got automatic million dollar bowl berths. This little piggie gets the Orange Bowl. These little piggies get the Rose. Those little piggies get the Sugar, the Fiesta and the BCS Championship game, Utah and the rest of the MWC still get none.
With this season8212;and really during the span of five years8212;there’s really no reason why any BCS conference deserves a spot in a major bowl game over the MWC.
But simply including the Mountain West Conference in the BCS is like fixing a broken stained glass window with duct tape, or driving a Bentley around with a donut spare tire. It makes a work of art, like the game of college football, look silly. It cheapens it, and if we keep at it long enough, eventually, the system is going to ruin itself.
Utah won’t win a national championship this year, and it’s a shame they never even had the chance. The Utes in 2008, however, should go down as legends, because the injustice that happened this season should allow them to be the pioneers of a playoff system. Utah’s season shouldn’t just be celebrated by Ute fans, but by fans of a college football playoff system everywhere.
