Afternoon Kickoff 7/23
Although SEC media day is the big event going on right now, a few interesting bits of information have come out of the Mountain West's event in Las Vegas.
Mainly, the Mountain West has had discussions about adding a team to take the conference up to 10. It's a move that could potentially give the Mountain West a really good argument to get an automatic BCS bid.
From commissioner Craig Thompson:
"We spent a lot of time talking in general about expansion specifically, not about particular institutions," Thompson said. "I think the conversation typically at a directors level has centered on maybe a 10th will help us. But the real issue is practical scheduling."
I have a hard time believing a specific institution hasn't been discussed, because there is just one obvious fit: Boise State.
There is not one other school that could help the Mountain West's BCS cause should it be added. No team has a better winning percentage this decade than the Broncos. They've won a BCS game in the past when they knocked off Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. They've beaten Pac-10 teams, with a 37-32 win over Oregon last year and wins over Oregon State in 2004 and 2006.
Boise State finished the '08 season ranked No. 11 in the AP Poll and will almost certainly be ranked in preseason polls this year. Utah (No. 2), TCU (No. 7) and BYU (No. 25) each finished in the top 25 last year as well, and each has a chance to be ranked this season.
In comparison, the Big East -- widely considered the weakest of the BCS leagues -- finished with two ranked teams last year (No. 17 Cincinnati, No. 23 West Virginia), and there's a good chance the conference will have only one team ranked in the '09 preseason pols.
This isn't to say the Big East should lose its automatic bid. As a whole, the Big East is deeper than the Mountain West. But with five BCS bowl games now, would it really be a problem to have seven automatic bids?
In its current nine-team state, I don't know that the Mountain West deserves the automatic bid yet. But add Boise State? Yeah, it would have a really strong argument.
It would be the perfect fit for the Mountain West, and a perfect fit for a Boise State team that has completely dominated the WAC in recent years.
But the question is, should the Mountain West somehow get an automatic bid in the next few years, would it stop clamoring for a playoff if it suddenly finds itself as part of the exclusive club?
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Quick hits:
-One of the hot topics at SEC media days: who didn't vote Tim Tebow All-SEC? A player is considered a unanimous selection if he gets 11 votes because coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players. But Tebow was not a unanimous selection. Most assumed it was Lane Kiffin, but he says he voted Tebow. Among the other coaches, Mark Richt and Nick Saban both said they voted for Tebow as well. The mystery continues.
-Someone broke into the Texas A&M football facility and used athletic tape to spell out "The Eyes of Texas are upon you" on the locker room floor (the opening line of the Texas fight song). Apparently the person responsible is affiliated with Texas A&M and will not be charged. Sounds like a Sue Paterno prank.
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Video of the day:
The loudest moment in the '02 Nebraska-Penn State game, which had the largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history:
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