Another MWC Blowout: Air Force 47, Houston 20

One team put up 562 yards of offense.  Houston?  NOPE.  The Air Force Falcons ran for 400 yards and forced Houston QB Case Keenum into 6 interceptions as the Academy rolled to a 47-20 victory.

The win moves the MWC to 4-0 in bowl games, winning their bowls by an average of 17 points.

Thriller in Boise: Idaho 43, Bowling Green 42

In a game that had almost 1,000 yards of offense, an NCAA record set, and 36 points scored in one quarter, the Idaho Vandals left the Humanitarian Bowl with a 43-42 victory over Bowling Green.

BYU Fans: Living in a Made-Up Past?

BYU, coach Bronco Mendenhall, and QB Max Hall have been under fire for the program's performance.  For those outside of Utah, this is probably shocking and confusing.  How can a team and coach who are 43-9 over the last 4 seasons, and a QB who has started for 3 of those seasons, be under any sort of pressure or receive any serious criticism for not winning enough?

Many BYU fans clutch to the 1984 National Championship and hold it over the heads of their entire conference, and especially over Utah, saying "Neener Neener, you don't have one!" (Even though TCU does).  But with more time, it is becoming clear that BYU fans do this out of an ever-growing insecurity.  BYU fans are driven mad by Utah's 2 BCS bowl victories and their own lack of BCS bowl appearances.  Ironically, this has caused a strange dichotomy:  BYU fans fly the '84 Championship in everyone's face as a sign of how BYU is still better than everyone, but then within their own walls use this national championship standard to criticize current teams, and fail to see the real success of the current program.  At some point, somewhere along the way, they began operating under a revisionist history, holding the current program and quarterback to a standard that was never actually there.

Bowl Preview: Hawaii Bowl

Yet Another Bowl Wynn: Utah 37, Cal 27

After getting down 14-0, freshman QB Jordan Wynn and the Utah Utes fought back and kept the Mountain West victory train going as they beat Cal 37-27 Wednesday night in San Diego.

CBS Playoffs: Round 2 Results

CBSSports.com concluded round 2 of their playoff yesterday.  #1 TCU beat #9 Texas Tech, #2 Boise State beat #10 Oklahoma, and #3 BYU fell to #6 Nebraska.  Click the title link for full bracket.

Bowl Preview: Poinsettia Bowl

Vegas Blowout: BYU 44, Oregon State 20

BYU entered the Vegas Bowl as 3-point underdogs to Oregon State . . and left the game with people reconsidering if the Mountain West deserves a BCS-bowl automatic bid.

After Oregon State scored the game's first TD mid-way through the first on a Sean Canfied QB sneak, BYU's offense came to life and rolled off 37 straight points to bury the Beavers.

Bowl Preview: Las Vegas Bowl

UNLV hires Montana's Hauck

Sources close to the Las Vegas Review-Journal say that UNLV has chosen Montana football coach Bobby Hauck to replace Mike Sanford as head coach of the Rebels.

Hauck was 80-17 at Montana and took the Grizzlies to 3 FCS championship games in his tenure.

SI names Whittingham vs. Mendenhall as the coaching rivalry of the decade

SI's Stewart Mandel has issued his highlights and lowlights of the college football decade, like player of the decade (Tim Tebow) and biggest upset (Appalachian State over Michigan, 2007).  In his "awards" he named Utah's Kyle Whittingham vs. BYU's Bronco Mendenhall as the coaching rivalry of the decade.  Both hired in 2004, Mendenhall owns a 3-2 series lead, but Whittingham has the only BCS bowl appearance and victory.

Mandel also named the Boise State vs. Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl as the best bowl game of the decade.  Click the title link for full article, a fun read to re-live the decade in college football.

BYU's Dennis Pitta, TCU's Jerry Hughes named Consensus All-Americans

BYU tight end Dennis Pitta and TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes have been named  Consensus 1st-Team All-Americans by the NCAA.  Pitta led all tight ends this year in receiving yards (784) and touchdowns (7).  Hughes recorded 11 sacks and 54 tackles.

The Consensus All-American award is given by combining calculations from 5 All-American lists: the Associated Press; the American Football Coaches Association; the Football Writers Association of America; The Sporting News; and the Walter Camp Foundation.

The last BYU player to be named as a Consensus All-American was running back Luke Staley in 2001.

CBS Playoffs: Round 1 Results

CBSSports.com is running a massive 64-team playoff.  Click the title link for the full bracket.  While a playoff would never be this large, it is fun to imagine.  Round 1 concluded yesterday, and here are the results:

Best of the Bowls

ESPN's Ivan Miasel and Mark Schlabach pick the best of the bowl games in this video:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4748710

Schlabach chooses BYU vs. Oregon State as most underrated bowl game of the season, and TCU vs. Boise State as the best overall bowl of the season.

Will Recession Lead Pac-10 to Expansion?

Click title link for quite a lengthy look at possible Pac-10 expansion from the Bleacher Report's Scott Wilson.  It seems that expansion is going to be the topic of this bowl season.

MWC half way to Auto-Bid?

With 2 of the first 4 auto-bid evaluation seasons in the books, the Mountain West Conference's shot at a BCS auto-bid is looking quite handsome.  (Click the title link for the full story from ESPN's Brad Edwards.)

Big Ten Expansion Speculation

Pete Misthaufen of the Bleacher Report posted a good breakdown of just what a Big Ten expansion would do to the rest of college football, coming on the heels of Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez joining Grandfather Joe in calling for their conference to expand.

Click the title link for the full explanation.  But the short of it is, if Big Ten grabs their 12th team from the Big East, there won't be many waves.  But if they grab from the Big 12, craziness will ensue.  They assume that Missouri would go to the Big Ten.  The Pac 10 would then try to keep up so they could have a championship game, so they would steal Colorado and Utah.  The Big 12 would replace Colorado and Missouri with BYU and Colorado State (arguing that the small Texas schools would object to losing to TCU every year).  The MWC would steal Boise State, Fresno State, Houston, Nevada, SMU, and Tulsa.  The WAC would be decimated.

All speculation, but it is sure interesting to think about.  Such a move by the Big Ten would indeed ripple throughout college football.  The Upset advocates that any new conference such as the Big Ten (since they couldn't be the Big 12, it already exists) ditch the lame "Big" moniker and go with something more classically directional like the old Southwest Conference.  Great Lakes Conference?

TCU's Hughes wins Lott; Fresno's Hill extended

TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes has been awarded with the Lott Trophy, which honors a defensive player for on-the-field performance as well as personal character.

In other news, Fresno State has signed head coach Pat Hill to a contract extension that will have him coaching beyond next season. Details of the extension have not yet been announced.

BCS anti-playoff arguments are a joke

We may or may not offer a series of quick thoughts about having a playoff throughout the bowl season ... but one thing that runs through our heads as we read @InsidetheBCS on Twitter and www.playoffproblem.com is . . . their arguments are very weak logically.  Just a set of poorly-examined rhetoric attempting to maintain the status quo.

The biggest sham of an argument that is being pushed is if it's a 16 team playoff, team #17 is still going to feel screwed and be angry.  There are 3 reasons this is just ridiculous: (and random thoughts jumbled in).....

Is Alabama Ineligible for Coaches Poll Votes?

Vince Mullins from Fantasy College Blitz has shared an interested email he received from a reader.  By rule, schools on "major" probation are ineligible to receive votes in the Coaches Poll.  If you remember, Alabama was placed on major probation after their textbook scandal.  Alabama should therefore receive 0 points from the Coaches Poll, which would drop them to #8 in the BCS Standings.

Click title link for the full story.  Very interesting.

Bowl Preview: New Mexico Bowl

Today starts our preview of all MWC and WAC bowls.  We'll preview a bowl every day (except Sunday) which will lead us up to Saturday, December 19 when bowl season kicks off.

BCS to TCU, Boise: Separate but Equal

BCS goes Plessy v. Ferguson on TCU and Boise State as they throw a big middle finger up to non-AQ conferences.

Watching the SEC Championship on Saturday, December 5th, we had a feeling this would happen, as we posted on Twitter dated 4:15 p.m. Dec 5th:

More of our thoughts on this to come . . .

Week 14

While much of the MWC and WAC have the week off while they await Saturday's results in conference championship games so the bowl bids can be sorted out, there are a few WAC teams in action this week.

Fresno State (7-4) @ Illinois (3-8)
10:30 a.m. MT, Big Ten Network
An wild shootout goes down to the very, very end.  Fresno State scores a TD with 0:02 left to tie it . . . unless you are Pat Hill, then it's a TD to WIN it. Fresno goes for 2 and converts when an O-Lineman catches a deflected pass!  FRESNO STATE 53, ILLINOIS 52
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4716984&categoryid=2564308

San Jose State (2-9) @ Louisiana Tech (3-8)
12:00 p.m. MT
Good news: somebody gets to win this one!
Tech rolls on strength of 31-pt 2nd quarter.  LA TECH 55, SJSU 20

New Mexico State (3-9) @ #6 Boise State (12-0)
1:00 p.m. MT
Broncos cruise.  BOISE 42, NMSU 7

Wisconsin (8-3) @ Hawaii (6-6)
9:30 p.m. MT, ESPN2
Hawaii is blown out and chokes away chance for bowl eligibility.  WISCONSIN 51, HAWAII 10

All-MWC Teams Announced

The Mountain West announced its picks for first and second All-MWC teams, as well as individual awards.

TCU was everywhere.  QB Andy Dalton was named the MWC offensive MVP,  DE Jerry Hughes is defensive MVP, and WR Jeremy Kerley is the special teams MVP.  TCU coach Gary Patterson was named the coach of the year.  Wyoming's Austyn Carta-Samuels is the freshman of the year.

Click the title link for full list of awards and All-MWC 1st and 2nd team picks.

Hall Hate: Why Fans and Media Hating on Max Hall are Wrong

For the last year, BYU quarterback Max Hall has consistently been the focus of criticism by his own fans.  Even as Hall's Cougars have racked up wins and become a mainstay in the Top 25, Hall has not been able to avoid fan's venom.  Now with his post-game remarks about the University of Utah following BYU's 26-23 overtime win on Saturday, Max Hall has become the target of hatred in Utah, in the West, and even some nation-wide who heard his post-game "rant."

In all of this, there are two words for those who have so much disdain for Hall:  You're Wrong.