Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Is Boise State the country's most over-rated team?


Now that the bowl season is over a clear picture is emerging on who might be the most over-rated team in the country.

Sorry to all those small school non automatic qualifiers, but Boise State, once a fan favorite, might have earned most over-rated tag among those ranked in the top 10 of the Coaches and AP polls.

Consider the facts: Boise State’s two biggest arguments that it should be a top tier team is that it defeated Virginia Tech and beat many of its Western Athletic Conference opponents by lopsided scores.

But those two arguments look soft now that the final results are in raising questions about the Broncos finishing seventh in the final USA Today Coaches Poll and ninth in the AP poll.

The criticism of voters is that they look too much at records and not enough at strength of schedule. If they had it seems unlikely Boise State would’ve finished in the top 10.

Stanford lambasted Virginia Tech 40-12 in the Orange Bowl exposing the Atlantic Coast Conference for being as weak as so many people have said.

Additionally, it turns out that some the better WAC teams (Hawaii and Fresno State) make good cannon fodder. And Boise State lost to Nevada, the conference’s only so called legit opponent.

Tulsa from Conference USA blasted Hawaii 62-35 while Northern Illinois from the much maligned Mid-American Conference had its way with Fresno State in a 40-17 victory.

Boise State had to come from behind to barely squeak by Virginia Tech 33-30 and lost to Nevada 34-31. In rolling up lopsided victories over Fresno State and Hawaii, the Broncos didn’t do anything different than Tulsa and Northern Illinois, which can’t even get a look from the pollsters.

And Boise State’s 26-3 bowl victory over Utah wasn’t much different than the 28-3 beating the Utes took from Notre Dame (28-3) not to mention their 47-7 thrashing by TCU.

So what was Boise’s biggest accomplishment this season? ____Its win over Virginia Tech?

Barely beating a Virginia Tech team that lost to I-AA James Madison and got trounced by Pac 10 Stanford should not get you a spot in the top 10 if there is nothing else on your resume.

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