Battle of the BSUs on the horizon?

By Bart Doan  |   Monday, December 01, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

College Football
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For every chess team captain who was not invited to the right Saturday night party and sat home saying that he'll throw a much better one someday, Ball State and Boise State have come to give you hope. Mid-American Conference commissioner Rick Chryst is attempting to be forward thinking and eschewing the death grip that bowl tie-ins seemingly have on the ability to place similarly talented teams up against one another in college football's postseason. He admitted earlier in the week that should his BSU win its conference, he would reach out to the powers-that-be in hopes of pitting the two against one another despite long odds.

As the tie-ins currently sit, WAC champion Boise State has its bags packed. . . for a walk to the nearest hotel. The Broncos would likely play in the Humanitarian Bowl on their campus if the BCS does not choose them. Ball State has a little longer of a trip, albeit up to Ford Field in Detroit, where competitive football has yet to be played this year, against a sixth- or seventh-place Big Ten team. The Humanitarian committee has made mention of possibly cutting its to-be-expired deal with the ACC a year short if it felt like it could get Ball State to make the trip out West. Naturally, the Cardinals aren’t eager to prove their mettle in what would be a true road game. They’d be on Boise’s exact home field. It is pure conjecture to say that the Humanitarian would release the Broncos from their binding contract as WAC champions, but it is not as far-fetched as it might be in a different situation; after all, locals are already calling for a setup anywhere possible for a meeting with Ball State should the WAC still be able to place a team in the abandoned spot.

The mere discussion, however, shows that the winds of change could be hitting college football earlier than anyone had assumed they would. Fans for years have been longing for the best teams to just call one another and set up a place and time to lace up the cleats and battle it out. Fans don’t understand the need for bowl tie-ins. Bowl games like this should be like dating: Someone calls someone else and a meeting is set up for the assumed good of everyone.

Sadly, good intentions often yield bad results. There are a hefty number of occurrences that will need to happen in order for any prospective “Which is the best BSU?” talk to start. Fans of this possibility will need to root for Nebraska to knock off Colorado, a fifth WAC team to become bowl-eligible, and the BCS to take a flier on Ohio State before a "mid-major championship" of sorts can be examined.

Still, there's the fact that behind the NCAA’s back and yet right to its face, Boise and Ball State chatter. They want to play one another. They want to find out which is better. They don’t need math, formulas or Lou Holtz telling them. They don’t believe any of the three as it is. And if it happens, if the ACC and Big Ten step aside and allow this anomaly, college football may have just taken a giant step toward changing the way a champion is defined. After all, if Boise State and Ball State can pick up the phone and ask one another out for an evening, who’s to say Southern Cal and Florida aren’t sitting on the couch alone on a Saturday night all dolled up and hoping the phone will ring as well?
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About Bart Doan

Bart has been with Realfootball365.com for about six months and thoroughly enjoys writing for the site. He has been featured for his writings on college football in The Sporting News, The Indianapolis Star, Sports Illustrated, and on CBS Sportsline.com. When he's not drowning himself in the ...
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