The Mad Giggler on :
Glad to see the Red, Blue and Pigskin is back! Go Utes!
Tuesday, August 3. 2010Red, Blue And Pigskin
Do you feel that? The shift? A world that has been out of whack since early this year, is finally starting to right itself. Chaos, is starting to make way for order. A terrible wrong is being righted.
That's right, Football is almost back. The NFL Players have already started their training camp, including the St. Louis Rams further cementing their doom by paying a rookie QB who couldn't stay healthy in college, and is coming off of two surgeries to his throwing shoulder, and was thoroughly befuddled before he got injured by BYU's defense in the opening game last year, 78 million dollars over 6 years, including 50 million guaranteed. Heck even Brett Favre is at it again. But Alas, that's not what we're here to talk about, there is another space for that. We're here to talk about the pageantry, the beauty, and the frustrating lack of a championship that is College Football. Fall camps are starting up. The Utes report Thursday, Cougars on Saturday. Heck even the Aggies of Utah State, who are preparing to shock the world in the WAC, report on Monday. But before we can get to the future, we should take some time to relive a relatively quiet offseason for local teams and the MWC. Football is back, and so is Red, Blue And Pigskin. When last we met.
So a quick recap to the end of last year. When last we met, BYU's outgoing QB, who probably hates this blog, disrespected his own teammates, by putting himself above the game, and overshadowing a thrilling victory by the Cougars in last year's Holy War, while at the same time giving all Utah fans a running joke. BYU went on to embarass Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. The very next night the Utes, led by freshman QB Jordan Wynn's 3 TD Passes torched the Cal Bears in the Poinsettia Bowl. In the Bowl Season the MWC Conference added wins by Air Force and Wyoming, as they set a bowl record of 4-1, and became the only conference to win the Bowl Challenge Championship 3 times. The only blemish on the MWC record was the TCU Horned Frogs, and Coach Gary Patterson, laying a complete egg, and choking in the Fiesta Bowl against the Boise State Broncos. Nationally, the season ended with Alabama, and sleazeball coach extraordinaire Nick Saban, holding the Crystal Ball by winning the Big Crappy System Championship game over Texas. Changes in the Landscape While the bowl season last year, was not College Football's most exciting for a while, the offseason, was. The Big Ten, which actually had 11 teams, announced that it was investigating expanding the conference to at least 12 teams. 12 is the magic number for college football conferences. NCAA rules state a conference must have at least 12 teams to hold a conference championship game. A game which by itself is worth millions of dollars to the teams of the conference. Also in the current state of college football, also means that your conference, and specifically your conference champion, is playing football as late as possible in the season, so that they can stay in the minds of voters who determine BCS Championship participants. More than once in the past few years the Big Ten, and Pac 10 champion has been forgotten, simply because they were at home while the SEC and Big 12 were playing. At the same time that the Big Ten was investigating expansion, the Pac-10's new commissioner, grew tired of the status quo that had run the Pac-10 for the past few years and announced that they to were looking into expansion. The Pac-10 started things off by inviting Colorado to join the conference. Then the Pac-10 made a move that could have permanently changed the face of college football, completely destroy any semblance of tradition, and forever lock the non AQ teams out of the picture. Before we continue, let me just put on my conspiracy hat for a moment. I believe, that one of the goals of the expansion this past offseason, was to find a way for the BCS to rid themselves of the Non-AQ problem. The big boys do not want the interlopers of the MWC. Colorado had already announced they were leaving the Big 12. The Pac-10's next move was to invite Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State to join them and form the first Super Conference in the NCAA. At the same time, unable to lure the big overrated gorilla of college football in Notre Dame, the Big Ten, invited Nebraska to join their conference, which Nebraska later accepted. Other than being a really, really terrible idea, the Pac-10 super conference, would have had ripples throughout College Football. The Big 12, would be dead, they would have lost 6 of their 12 members, The SEC, Big Ten, and ACC would have responded themselves by scooping up the remnants of the Big 12, while pillaging the Big East, to also get to 16 members each. This would have essentially created 4 Super Conferences, and widened the gap between the AQ's and Non-AQ's to a point that they never would have broken in. Of Course it would have all fallen apart in 4-6 years, as conferences realized that 16 teams spread out too far is just to cost inefficient. Initially the MWC and Craig Thompson announced they had decided against expansion for now, and were not inviting Boise State to join. A week later, as everyone waited on the decision of the Big 12 five, they reversed course and made Boise State the 10th member of the MWC. As the death of the Big 12 seemed imminent, Commissioner Dan Beebe made a last ditch appeal to Texas. The key for Texas was the use of their own private TV Network, The Pac-10 wouldn't allow it, so when Beebe gave Texas the go ahead, Texas decided to stay in the Big 12. Texas decision to remain caused the other 4 to remain and save the Big 12, which now had 10 teams. Though a swing for the fences and a miss by the Pac-10, they went to work on plan B. A little over a week later they invited Utah to become the 12th member of the Pac-10, which Utah accepted. What does this mean Starting in 2011 Utah will leave the MWC and join the Pac-10. The MWC Will replace Utah with Boise State. 2011 is important because it is the 3rd year of a 4 year cycle to determine Automatic Qualifier status for the MWC. Since Boise State will be playing in the MWC for 2011, their accomplishments for 2008, 2009, and 2010 will count for the MWC. However since the Utes will be in the Pac-10, the MWC will lose all of the Utes accomplishments. This also means that BYU, and Utah will no longer be in the same conference. The Rivalry game will have to change in order for it to continue. I have thoughts on that later. Was this the best course of action for the Utes? Uhh. Duh. Absolutely it was. There is no way the Utes could have passed up this opportunity. While an Automatic Qualifying MWC with Utah, TCU, Boise State, and BYU, would have been, in my opinion, a better conference than the Pac-12 will be, there were too many question marks for the Utes to turn down an invite. First question is will the MWC become an AQ. This past offseason the standards for becoming an AQ were released. It is clear they were rigged against the MWC, and as such the MWC qualifies in 2 of the 3 categories. However all 3 need to pass in order to become an AQ. Secondly if Utah had turned down the Pac-10, they would have had to have a guarantee that TCU, Boise State, and BYU Would not accept an offer to another conference. Those teams would be stupid to turn down an offer, and without all 4 teams the MWC will always struggle and be on the outside looking in. Being a member of the Pac-10 means way more money to the University. It also means better recruits. Every year there are highly sought players, especially local players, who keep Utah and/or BYU on their list of schools, before eventually deciding to join a AQ School, typically in the Pac-10. This way, recruits can still be local, and play for an AQ Team. What does this mean for BYU? What about the MWC? Since the MWC added Boise State, this basically means they are exactly where they were before all the expansion talk started. They didn't get any better, they didn't get any worse, at least for the time being. While Boise State will be strong this year, I do believe that the improved competition will give the Broncos a couple more losses than normal. They'll still be in the 9-10 win range, but they won't be an annual threat to go undefeated. However, if the MWC does not get the AQ status after this 4 year cycle, they could see themselves on the extinction list. BYU has already started making friends with other conferences. The Big 12 (10) is petitioning for a Conference Championship game with only 10 teams. When that gets turned down they'll have to make a decision, stay at 10 and lose the conference championship, and the money and recognition that comes with it, or expand back to 12. Money will win out, and they'll make an expansion. Natural targets would Be, TCU, Boise State, BYU, and/or Houston. There are many questions whether Boise State can compete week in and week out without the weak schedule of the WAC. Baylor does not want another Texas Based Religious school in the Conference, and overall teams aren't sure about another Texas team, so that leaves TCU and Houston out. BYU, and actually Air Force seem like the two popular candidates. There has also been talk about BYU leveraging BYU-TV and going independent. This is a terrible option and should only be a last ditch option. BYU would not be able to stay relevant as an independent team. As it is now, there is only 1 independent team that is still relevant, and that's more based on history than on the field production. If the Big 12 doesn't expand, and the MWC doesn't get the AQ, another option could be a merger with Conference USA to further strengthen the teams in the conference from top to bottom. What about the Rivalry The rivalry will change. However, I think it will get stronger. Especially while BYU remains a non-AQ. BYU will be out to beat an AQ team, while Utah doesn't want to lose to a non-AQ. The question though is when will the rivalry game happen. The Pac-10 will not be keen on allowing Utah to play a non Pac-10 Rival during Rivalry week. The Pac-10 wants to try and renew an old rivalry between Utah and Colorado that's been dormant since 1962. BYU will probably get the Boise State game during that week. The easy solution, move it to Labor Day. Rather than being the end of the year bash, make it the beginning of the year kickoff. Tensions will build all offseason in preparation for the game. Truth is that rarely did the rivalry game mean anything in the big picture. Conference championships were usually clinched before the game. Really it only mattered big pictures in 1984 when Utah could have ruined BYU's perfect season. The Utes could have hurt BYU's appearance in the Cotton bowl in 1996. BYU Could have ruined BCS dreams in 2004, and 2008. Other than those 4 times, the Rivalry has always been about local pride. There is precedent for two teams from separate conferences though. Florida and Florida State still play every year. The Good Old Fashioned Hate between Georgia and Georgia Tech is another. Being in separate conferences won't hurt the Rivalry, as long as both teams remain competitive against each other. And, especially after BYU joins the Big 12 in a couple years, if national stakes are on the line for either team, even better. Can Utah compete in the Pac-10? We already know that Utah can beat teams in the Pac-10. They've done it almost every year in the Bowl games. Utah also sports the most wins against AQ teams by a non-AQ Team, many of which have come against Pac-10 teams. The real question, is can Utah do it week in and week out. Utah, as well as BYU, TCU, and Boise State, have number 1 players that can match up with any team in the country. The difference starts to appear when it comes down to number 2's, and number 3's. Playing better teams week in and week out will cause some depth issues for the Utes, at least at first. But as Utah has built up a competitive team at a severe disadvantage, when they start getting BCS Recruits, BCS Money, they'll start to get that depth. They're already better than Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State, UCLA and Cal. Washington and Stanford have made great strides the past couple years, but the jury is out on whether they've actually made a leap. Oregon, Oregon State, and USC are the cream of the Pac-10, but USC will begin to feel the pain of NCAA sanctions. Don't be surprised if Utah sits around the 4th, 5th, or 6th spot for the first couple years, as they make that transition. But if Utah builds their team the way they currently do, continue to work Texas, California, as well as their polynesian pipeline for recruiting, the way they currently do, and then remove the disadvantages they've been working under since the formation of the BCS, it won't take long before they join that top tier in the Pac-10. Farewell Tour Before any of that can happen though, Utah has it's swan song in the MWC. They will be the target of everyone this season, especially BYU and TCU. It's the last time many of these teams will ever play Utah. Hopefully that includes the hell week that comes with Air Force. While the Utes won't miss Craig Thompson, or the crappy Mtn TV network, they will want to leave on a high note. Starting next week we'll preview that swan song, as well as the upcoming season for BYU and the MWC, and determine just what kind of farewell tour the Utes will get. Trackbacks
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The Mad Giggler on :
Glad to see the Red, Blue and Pigskin is back! Go Utes!
Radar on :
I just hope everyone has a good time playing.
ThRhett on :
You are a dork.
Swatson on :
I like the Utes move to Pac-10 (12). What does anyone think of the moves by NCAA and USC with personnel changes (coach, athletic director, heisman trophy removals)? I'm not a Trojan fan, but I'm thinking USC made a good move on the AD and heisman removal. Not sure what I think about Kiffin yet as coach. Didn't like what happened in Oakland and Tennessee with him. Who knows, maybe he didn't get a shot?
The Mad Giggler on :
I'm looking forward to whipping on USC over the next 10 years.
Sideshow on :
Kiffin is a bum who is riding his father's coat tails. He may have been hired too inexperienced for the Oakland job, but once he had it, he didn't do anything with it.
He came to Tennessee with a lot of hot air, and fizzled. The only thing he brought Tennessee was a list of violations for which the NCAA is now investigating. His hiring by USC was a terrible move, and IMO probably helped encourage some of tougher sanctions. After all if your a program looking at sanctions the last thing you want to do is hire a coach who in 1 single year was being investigated for some infractions while at Tennessee. Also don't forget that Kiffin recruited Bush in the first place. USC will have a good year next year, because there is still talent there, and Lane's dad will get that defense running well, but after that when the Sanctions kick in, the scholarships go buh-bye and the cupboard starts to bare, prepare for the fall of Troy. Kiffin will be gone in 3-4 years, but the damage at USC by Pete Carroll, Kiffin as a Carroll assistant, and Kiffin as a coach will be there a long time. AoD on :
Ah, "Red, Blue, and Pigskin" - how I've missed thee. Thy return heraldeth that most beloved of seasons - football season.
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