Boise State had a tougher OOC than Florida. BSU OOC Opponents record: 24-15 UF OOC Opponents record: 20-19 BSU is a really good team that happens to be mired in no mans land outside of the Big 10, Pac 10, and Big 12 Geography. Not really their fault. Not really their fault unless you think that not being so good 1978 (when the Pac 10 got their current geography after adding Arizona and ASU) is the fault of the current team. The BSU wrestling team does compete in the PAC 10 though. Sorry BSU, you really should have put your school in Kentucky, then you might have made it into the Big East.
Boise St. is undefeated and should at least share the championship. Oklahoma was one blown call away from playing in the national championship game themselves. Btw - Boise St. would beat Florida.
What About Boise? GLENDALE, Ariz. – A week ago Jared Zabransky stood on this same field and declared that his Boise State Broncos – the People's Champion, America's Team – deserved a crack at the national title after its wild victory over Oklahoma pushed them to 13-0 and full national respectability. It won't happen, even if it should, even if America would rather have seen Boise State play again than Florida whip Ohio State 41-14 in what likely will be the lowest-rated championship game ever, a buzz-less blowout that took place too far after the other bowl games. No offense to Florida, the rightful and worthy BCS champion after its domination here Monday, but this college football season peaked back on Jan. 1, its traditional day, when a non-traditional team riveted the country. That was an instant classic. This just will be instantly forgotten by many. The Gators (13-1) may be the champs, quarterback Chris Leak may be the feel-good redemption story and the SEC may be proven as the dominant league this season, but here at the conclusion, with the confetti raining down, something was missing. Boise State. "[Florida] earned a national championship," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel conceded. But only because the Gators had the chance to earn it. Conventional wisdom would say that if Florida played the way it played Monday against Ohio State – ferocious on defense, fast on offense, smart at quarterback – then Boise wouldn't stand a chance, no matter how many trick plays coach Chris Petersen drew up. But then again, conventional wisdom said Ohio State was going to roll the Gators and Oklahoma would humiliate Boise. "Yeah," said UF coach Urban Meyer, "let's play them next week." He began smiling. "I know Boise State. I would not want to do that. We're good. We're done. We're finished." He laughed some more. Maybe, a bit, in relief. "There is probably five, six, seven great football teams in this country, and there is one way to figure out who the better team is and that's to go play the game." The strength of the college game is its diversity, its differences. No two offenses are alike, no two conferences similar, no two schedules the same. Division I-A has 119 teams competing for one title (pro leagues have around 30) making all comparisons impossible. There is no way, no formula, no mix of opinion polls and computers that ever consistently can select the top two teams. If there ever were a sport that demanded a tournament, it is college football – even more so than pro sports where there is a comparative body of regular season work. No matter how hard it tries, this championship system turns up paper contenders as often as not (Oklahoma 2004, 2003; Nebraska 2001). No one doubted Ohio State's credentials getting here; the Buckeyes were 12-0 and virtually untested and boasted the Heisman Trophy winner, Troy Smith, at quarterback. But they never stood a chance in this one, as Florida's superior speed, execution and hunger turned the game into a lopsided affair before halftime hit. Tack on a 51-day layoff for Ohio State in a game scheduled a week after much of America had given up on college football in favor of the NFL playoffs (and in a game held far from a tradition-rich campus in this architectural disaster in the sprawl of the desert), and this was a great night only if you were a Florida Gator. While a perfect world would have given Boise a shot to keep playing and to keep winning, make no mistake: The Gators are the undeniable champion. The system is the system, and Florida is the undisputed champion. Boise State doesn't deserve a share of the title, just a chance at it. For Florida, this was complete satisfaction, but too many questions remain. Debate will rage. Could the Gators have handled Zabransky, Ian Johnson and Petersen's playbook? Could Cinderella have done it again, ridden a wave of momentum and emotion to shock the Gators the way they did the Sooners? Monday may mean everything in Florida, as it should, but to most fans, Nirvana was hit when Boise proved that anything is possible in the greatest game anyone had ever seen. Then, at 13-0, the Broncos were told their season was over – not because they weren't good enough this season but because decades ago they weren't good enough to get into the proper blueblood conference to generate schedule strength. So rather than a potential thriller, rather than building on all that momentum from the trick plays, the big comeback and the marriage proposal, rather than continuing to captivate the country, we got this – a mismatch that made millions but thrilled few outside Gainesville. One-loss Florida was wonderful. But unbeaten Boise State, and the rest of the country, is left wondering.
C'mon...Florida is #1, but Boise should be #2...no doubt about it...Boise v. Oklahom was the best game of the year, period...
Not to take anything from BSU, but you can't honestly tell me with a straight face that that team would have survived the SEC with a perfect record.
I think Boise St. vs. Oklahoma could be considered a national championship game as well. It was an undefeated team vs. a 1-loss team. (I dont count the Oregon loss against them, I see it as a victory)
Uh, it was the 7th best team (today it is the 11th best team) vs. the 9th best (today the 5th best) team. Nope.
Anyone who says BSU wouldn't have a shot against UF or OSU are probably the same people who thought OSU had no shot against Miami, that UT had no shot against USC and that UF had no shot against OSU.
Seconded. Boise beating Oklahoma doesn't mean they deserve the championship. It also doesn't mean they DON'T deserve it. Playoffs are the only real way to figure it out. But if you want to make undefeated teams automatically better than 1-loss teams w/ far harder schedules, than get ready for a season of David and Goliath games and no reason to watch college football anymore.
Boise played Sacramento State. I have never even heard of them. And Florida had the toughest schedule in the entire nation. So its going to be hard to support them based on any kind of strength of schedule debate. Had Boise played a ranked team they might have a shot. However they would probably have lost it.
Well EVERY team has a shot, that's why they play the games. The national champion isn't about who would have a 100% chance of beating every single other team - just a 50% or more chance of beating every single other team, if you want to put it that way.
One blown call by a ref cost OK a title shot ~ so Boise St. beat the team that would have beaten overated Ohio St.
Says who? Oklahoma started off the season so far behind it's unlikely that a one-loss Oklahoma would have even made it into the title game - even in the unlikely "if's and but's" scenario that the whole season palys out in the exact same fashion. It's great taht they backed into the Fiesta Bowl after the Longhorns went belly up, but that makes them one of the top 2 teams in the country? No. They were barely affected by the loss to Oregon on a weekly basis (dropped from 15 to 17 in the polls) and got back up to 14 until getting spanked by the Longhorns and dropped back down to 23. They wouldn't have had enough to pass Michigan or Florida (or Wisconsin, or LSU) to come all the way up from where they would have been after losing to the Longhorns at that point in the season. There were too many teams that looked much better, and they would have had very few strength of schedule points and awful computer rankings, considering that their signature win would have been Oregon, who ended up 7-6, unranked and was pasted by BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl (or make that 6-6 and Bowl-less if they lose to OU).
