Boise State and Idaho: College Football's Newest Rap Battle

Our friends from the land of potatoes are getting into it enough that we're starting to look around for Lane Kiffin. The Broncos and the Vandals are straight BEEFIN!  With schools changing conferences, Boise State and Idaho are faced with the same question that has been posed to BYU and Utah: will you continue your rivalry?

Well if these schools were entangled in battle raps, Utah and BYU would be 2Pac vs. Biggie Smalls, but Boise State and Idaho would be Eminem vs. Benzino.

WAC Pre-Season Polls - Did SJSU's coach really vote them last?

There was a lot of to-do coming out of Salt Lake from the WAC media days about how some media member voted Nevada to finish first over Boise State. (Nevada received one 1st place vote from Boise coach Chris Petersen because coaches are not allowed to vote their own school #1).

However, people are missing the real story here.  Here are the polls:

SI Vault: Can Nice Guys Finish First? 4/28/1997

For those who follow @theupsetblog on Twitter, you know while we push aside our fan allegiances for the college football blog here, our NBA fandom is clear: we cheer for the Utah Jazz.

We know that probably makes a lot of you in the MWC and WAC footprint not like us so much. So our apologies for this post, we promise to continue coverage of college football in the West.

But recently I finished cleaning out my stuff at my parent's house (2+ years since getting married ... yep, I know, slacker) when I came across a box full of Sports Illustrated covers I used to have hanging all over my wall. In this box was a full issue of the magazine from April 28, 1997. I searched through it to see why I might have kept it and remembered.

Featured in this issue was a piece on the Utah Jazz after having just posted a scintillating 64-18 regular season record as they prepared for the playoffs (so this being before their first Finals appearance). I found the article to be fascinating, these 13 years later. For all, it gives some interesting insight on running a small-market pro franchise. For Jazz fans, it fascinates to read how much things are still the same around Salt Lake City. Whether that is good or bad, that's for you to decide.  Very fascinating, however, given the fact that the people in the front office have changed....

So here are excerpts of what I found in Phil Taylor's article, and I will bold those parts I found interesting, including a couple of prophecies (please let us know your thoughts in comments below):

BYU's Kaveinga appeals to NCAA

Brett Richins at the premier BYU blog Deep Shades of Blue reports that BYU LB Uona Kaveinga has appealed to the NCAA to grant him eligibility for this season.

Kaveinga transferred to BYU from USC in time to participate in BYU spring practices -- just before the NCAA levied sanctions against the Trojans.  Because of those sanctions, USC players are being allowed to transfer to other FBS schools without having to sit out the usually requisite year.  So had Kaveinga waited, he too could have transferred to BYU without sitting out a year.

Click on the post title which links to the full story from Deep Shades of Blue.

From our view, it is clear that the NCAA should allow Kaveinga to play.  While it is possible he transferred looking for a starting position, it is also possible he transferred either to get away from the corruption, or because he felt sanctions would be coming, and he didn't want to miss out on any post-season play, for example. This is a unique circumstance which would not set much precedent.  Rule in favor of the student and their desire ... something the NCAA rarely does. (See Texas A&M hoopster Derrick Roland's appeal being denied - http://is.gd/dALOX - the game in which he obliterated his lower leg was the game that put him over the 30% mark of games played that season).

Does your MWC or WAC team have a blog you enjoy?  Let us know here in the comments section, at theupsetblog@gmail.com, or on Twitter @theupsetblog

2010's Most Shameful Games

It seems that with every passing year since 'strength of schedule' was removed as an explicit factor in the BCS standings formula, schools' schedules get weaker and weaker.  Sure, strength of schedule is supposedly "intuitively" factored in by human pollsters, but BCS teams are receiving a pass for playing sorry non-conference schedules.

We know, we know ... IT'S SO TOUGH competing in your BCS conference.  We get it.  But we're all sick of it.  The have-nots have to run the table in their 12 game schedule AND play a few teams with a name in their non-conference schedule.  (Remember 2001 BYU? They were 12-0 up until their last game at Hawaii and were told BEFORE that game that they would not receive a BCS bowl invite.  This schedule included wins over Tulane, Cal, and Mississippi State.  The problem was all these teams were kinda crappy.  But when the Tulane game was scheduled, Shaun King and Michael Jackson had just led the Green Wave to an undefeated season.  There was also no way for them to know that road wins at Cal and Miss. St. would somehow hurt them instead of help when they slated those games as well.)

But you, the elite, the cream, the bourgeoisie, you can get by scheduling a steaming pile of excrement to ensure you enter conference play at 4-0.  Want to play one sorry team? Fine. You can have one. But any more and your coaches and athletic director should have to hand over their man cards.  I mean, you could venture into the leprous "non-BCS" conferences and play their top two or three teams, but you don't even do that.  You schedule the dregs.  To make matters worse, these games are almost assuredly home games.  (Although props to Texas for traveling to Wyoming last year!)

So today, we expose the most shameful "BCS" schedules in the country.

PART I: After the Cooling Off Period: The Consequences of Expansion for the MWC

The Mountain West Conference has been a player in the college football news landscape during the summer of 2010.  With expansion crisis sending shock-waves throughout college football the Mountain West was not left unchanged.  With Nebraska and Colorado bolting the Big 12 for supposed greener pastures and new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott looking to ravage the remnants of a once proud conference, the unthinkable looked possible for the Mountain West: The "little conference that could" might become an automatic-qualifier to the BCS.  With the top portion of the Big 12 headed to the Pac-10 and SEC, the MWC looked to be the greatest beneficiary.  Schools like Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri were possible acquisitions.  With the addition of perennial Top 10 program Boise State, pundits were beginning to predict that the "fly-over" conference might be ready for prime-time.

Then, it all ended.