Weekly Blabber 2/2/2009

Welcome to the first Weekly Blabber of February. As I have mentioned before, Weekly Blabber is an opinion post for each week. Weekly Blabber will usually be about the latest or hottest topic circling college football.

The Weekly Blabber for February 2, 2009, will be on the Mountain West Conference's recent push to get a BCS automatic bid. For those that are unfamiliar, the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) is made up of the six major football conferences: the ACC, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, the PAC Ten, and the SEC. Each conference has an automatic tie-in for each BCS Bowl: Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. For example, usually the ACC Champion will play the Big East Champion in the Orange Bowl, the PAC Ten Champion usually plays the Big Ten Champion in the Rose Bowl, and so on. With the BCS Bowls comes a hefty paycheck for the participating conferences.

This is the reason the Mountain West is lobbying for an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in... the big money. The Mountain West is a "mid-major" conference, which means it is considered to be a notch below the BCS conferences as far as national contention goes. The Mountain West Conference consists of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, Utah, and Wyoming.
The Mountain West Conference brought up the argument of an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in mainly because of the strength of its team's recent BCS Bowl record and final poll records. In the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Utah defeated Pitt, and then defeated Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Both seasons the Utes were unbeaten at 13-0, finishing fourth in 2005 and second in 2009 for the final poll. The Mountain West Conference teams finished the 2008 season ranked second (Utah), seventh (TCU), and 25th (BYU).

So, the question is..... Does the Mountain West Conference deserve an automatic BCS Bowl tie-in? My answer to that is...... not yet. The reason for my answer is that although the Mountain West teams have performed very well as of late, the conference is not strong enough from top to bottom. Utah, BYU, and TCU had great seasons in 2008, but UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming, and New Mexico only had 15 wins combined. Another reason the conference will get friction for bowl tie-in consideration is the legal matters involved. There is a swarm of contracts that spans eleven conferences, two TV networks, and four bowls.

I think the best recipe for the Mountain West Conference is to keep doing what they are doing. The conference must do three things: continue getting impressive bowls wins, continue having three or more teams in final poll results, and improve the programs of Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, and Wyoming. The Mountain West is surely taking the correct strides towards becoming a BCS conference. But I believe it will be a few years down the road before they see the fruits of their labors.