The Reality Check on Boise State

Because non-conference games are in September. And it doesn’t snow in September in the vast majority of the country. Tennessee has a game scheduled a few years down the line in Columbus, Ohio. But it’s too early in the year.

As for scheduling games at 2,000 feet, the problem is that there aren’t a lot of recruiting hotbeds at 2,000 feet, and teams tend to schedule away games around recruiting. Honestly, I don’t even know why 2,000 feet is a big deal. I live at roughly that elevation (or I suppose I ought to say my parents live at that elevation back in Tennessee), and I don’t really even notice the difference.

That humidity is killer, and cramps are a much bigger problem if you’re not used to it.

The altitude is a valid point, but 2,000 feet isn’t enough to affect those athletes, given the amount of downtime they have in a game. They have time to catch their breath. A few of the stadii in the 5,000+ range have more to offer in terms of homefield advantage. One of my favorite memories of a Wyoming game was when Hawaii came into town (7,200 feet). They had an unbelievable number of oxygen tanks lined up behind the benches. We saw that and knew they were defeated before the game started – the altitude was already in their heads.

Also, forget about SEC teams (or, really any of the major-stadium teams) playing 6-6 home-road schedules. They would lose far too much revenue. It’s cheaper to pay the price to bring other teams in than to settle for a home-and-home unless the opposing team has a stadium of comparable proportions. (In the latter case, the attendance and the TV revenue make up the difference.)

Is Boise detractors want teams like BSU and TCU to play at least 6+ games per year against “real” competition (and, no, each other don’t count), and Boise supporters want an SEC team to “play in the snow” or “at a high elevation”.
This, of course, begs the question: teams that deal with these issues on a regular basis aren’t really effected by these conditions, especially elevation, since, you know, they live at that elevation everyday. Isn’t that more or less admitting that these WAC and MWC teams need a handicap? I’m not trying to “bash” anyone, this is just my impression of the argument. Feel free to correct me if I’m off base.

That was when they were on the cusp of going from a good team to being a great team. I get your point at being cynical, but had Boise played an AQ school in their BCS matcup last year people would be thinking differently.

I still love how everyone talks about that game like “Boise State’s win over Oregon is looking better all the time.”

If you want an idea of how we were playing then, don’t look at Halloween night. Look at Purdue and Utah. We were decent, but we were not playing at a level that deserves “Boise State beat the Pac-10 champs” with no asterisks.

i can see all the good teams with two losses. bsu vs a 2 loss sec or 2 loss big 12 team on a nuetral field would be a good game. i would take the points and count my money. bsu is by far the best covering machine in the last 14 years. nobody is even close.

Thanks for the comments.

It’s not so much that people are down on Boise State because it lost to Georgia in ‘05, but because of the way it lost to Georgia in ’05. I can remember at the time some folks were picking BSU to win the game as an upset special, and certainly those who didn’t see a Bronco win thought it would be a close game.

Instead, Boise State completely face planted into the Sanford Stadium turf. It wasn’t close to any degree. Now sure, teams change and players come and go. Everyone understands that. It’s just that they finally traveled outside their comfort zone and they got absolutely killed. They looked more like a Sun Belt sacrificial lamb than a national player.

Images like that don’t fade from memory too easily. That’s why I’d bet most college football fans think of Boise State as Trick Play University when in reality, gadget plays have had very little to do with the runaway success of the program. That’s also what makes this Virginia Tech game so important. The only way to erase those Georgia ’05 memories is to either beat VT or at least lose close. Another blowout loss would firmly attach a reputation of not being able to win the big one far from home to the program and it would seriously hurt a lot of the progress of the past decade.