The Honorable Mountain West Gets Bought

Wednesday, July 8, 2009. The Mountain West Conference gives in to the cash. The MWC’s back was up against the wall after a 6 month battle against the BCS which is generally accepted as being fundamentally flawed. On Wednesday, a statement was released from the MWC. Their efforts to change the current system had not been accepted and they felt they had “no choice at this time but to sign the agreements.” When faced with either compromising morality or being able to survive, most will find themselves swaying towards survival. The contract runs through the 2013 season.

The main problem with this new agreement is that the Mountain West champion would still not automatically qualify for a spot in one of the top-tier bowls. They would have to be voted in like Utah was this year. It would still qualify them as a "BCS Spoiler." Recently, the other major conferences that make up the BCS, along with Notre Dame, rejected a Mountain West proposal for an eight-team playoff to determine a national champion. The release also states that “if a conference wishes to compete at the highest levels of college football, and the only postseason system in place for that is the BCS, no one conference can afford to drop out and penalize its football programs and student-athletes.” Essentially, if they held their ground for a playoff system, the BCS would muscle them out of money, exposure, and recruiting. Option A: stand firm in what you know to be right and hope someone else decides to drop millions of dollars to feel better about themselves or Option B: take the money and run... wise decision Mountain West.

While all College Football can get behind a conference that’s pushing for the much needed playoff, it’s hard to get behind a conference that continues to get the benefit of the doubt. Last year, the Utah Utes finished the season ranked 2nd in the Nation. The Utes have twice gone unbeaten in the BCS era. Each time the Utes were left out of the national championship game, but soundly defeated an opponent from one the leagues with a guaranteed spot in another BCS game. The last of which was against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl where the Utes finished the season with a trouncing Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide 31-17. While that may look spectacular on paper, one must remember that their most difficult game on the road last year was their first game of the season in which they barely beat Michigan by a measly score of 25-23. Michigan, although a historical powerhouse, only won 3 games last year in a weak Big 10 conference.

Apart from the Alabama game, their biggest win of the season was against then-ranked 14 BYU, which was at home and they won by 24 points. However, BYU also shared the same Mountain West cupcake schedule. I commend the Utes for scheduling teams like Michigan and Oregon State, but the MWC will not get any respect scheduling out of conference games against St. Mary’s Little Sisters of the Poor College in Vancouver. Winning 13 games is great, amazing in fact, but if you tell me that Utah would have that same record playing top NFL prospects every week in a conference like the SEC, Big 12, or Pac-10, I will vomit all over my keyboard because it’s just outrageous. If Texas, who played 4 top 11 teams in consecutive weeks and only lost one by a last second touchdown miracle doesn’t get in to the National Championship game, Utah doesn’t deserve to. If USC who had, arguably, one of the best defenses in College Football history who had one bad quarter in their 3rd game of the season doesn’t get into the National Championship game, Utah doesn’t deserve to.

Utah’s win over Alabama was impressive yes, and Alabama did deserve to play in the Sugar Bowl, but Alabama was even more over-rated than the Utes. Bama played only 3 ranked teams in the regular season. Georgia, then ranked 3rd by default, showed us why they were there by default and continued to erode throughout the rest of the season ending it with 3 ugly losses. Clemson ranked 9th was their opener. Wait, who? Oh yeah, I forgot, they ended with 6 losses barely making it into a bowl game. That’s why I forgot. And then, there’s then-ranked 16 LSU. If LSU had a quarterback, they would’ve beat Alabama by 30 points. They were then manhandled by Florida in the SEC title game. The final score (31-20) was not indicative of the second half. Throughout the second half of the season, Alabama looked sloppy and unorganized which was incredibly apparent in the Sugar Bowl against a team they could care less about playing. The Sugar Bowl was Utah’s Super Bowl. It was Alabama’s consolation prize.

The BCS ranked the University of Utah 2nd when all was said and done. Above 12-1 Texas and above 12-1 USC. Instead of Utah fans getting all up in arms about not being given a shot at the National Championship, they should be thanking their lucky stars that they’re even talked about with that sort of gravitas, because the comparison of schedules between them is laughable. The Mountain West better be careful what they wish for. According to their statement issued Wednesday, their “goal is to ensure the eventual outcome of these endeavors is what our universities and student-athletes need, what the vast majority of American sports fans want, and what is long overdue: an equitable system.” In an “equitable system,” you would be demolished the first time you met USC, Texas, Florida, or Oklahoma in your playoff system. Be happy you’ve got a seat at the grown up table, now have good manners or we’ll send you back the kid’s table in the family room. Quiet, grown-ups are talking.