Boise State Relives Nightmare

          The sight was all too familiar for Boise State nation--a field goal that sailed wide right. Different year, different opponent, yet the same story. The team that uniquely plays on blue turf in Idaho and is on the verge of making a case for the BCS National Championship falls short because the kicker couldn't put the ball between the uprights when it mattered the most. The frustrating part for being a team such as Boise State, in a conference that doesn't have an automatic qualifying bid for a BCS bowl, is that the only way to do so is to execute every play nearly to perfection. However, assuming the Big East remains one of the "power" conferences and keeps its automatic BCS bowl bid, Boise State may avoid this dilemma in future years if they change conferences. There seems to be a flaw in the system if an undefeated team that has proven itself over and over again in the past decade by appearing towards the top of the rankings, completely drops out of the race for the national championship because a freshman kicker pushes a field goal wide right in the biggest moment of his life. I don't think that Boise State should be in the title game this year or in any of the previous seasons, but hopefully moving to the Big East would at least give the Broncos a legitimate chance to make an appearance sometime in the near future if they can have an undefeated or one-loss season. I can't imagine how hard it is for Kellen Moore and the rest of the Boise State seniors, who have only lost three games in their collegiate career by a combined five points. They have had back-to-back seasons with BCS National Championship hopes, but the team chokes in winnable games. The circumstances don't matter--a loss is a loss. The arguably unfair part of college football is that one loss has different effects on different teams. Alabama loses one game and they drop from being ranked 2nd to 3rd. Boise State loses one game and they'll drop to 10th at best. While the circumstances of the loss are important, such as the opponent and score, there are different implications for different conferences. If they join the Big East, Boise State will finally be put to the test to decide if they are deserving of title game bid. However, there are still other schools, such as Houston, that have excellent records but their opportunity to be in a BCS bowl is extremely limited. This certainly makes a case for a playoff system, which I would see implemented five to ten years down the road. A sixteen team playoff with a mix of automatically qualifying conferences as well as at-large schools would be a much better way to decide which team is most deserving of the national championship.


P.S. I would strongly recommend any kickers being recruited by Boise State to re-evaluate all of their options before choosing to become a Bronco.