Read the debate intro and Sports Geek’s argument that the Mountain West Conference does not deserve an automatic BCS bid every year.
It is hard to argue against performance on the field. All the posturing, polls, history, and rankings in the world become irrelevant once two teams set foot on the field to play ball.
Just ask Alabama, Oklahoma, UCLA, Washington, Arizona, Virginia, Stanford, Iowa State, Arizona State, Michigan, Oregon State, and Tennessee (whew, that was a long list), all of whom are schools from “power” conferences that have lost to the Mountain West Conference in 2008 and 2009 (so far).
In fact, the Mountain West’s record against the six current automatic-BCS Conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big XII, PAC-10 and SEC) over the past two seasons is the best of any conference in the football bowl sub-division (FBS). Their record of 16-13 against the six power conferences is a greater winning percentage than even the SEC (13-16), and the Big XII (12-14), which are generally regarded as the two best conferences in college football. As for the non-power conferences, the Mountain West is miles ahead of the WAC (6-28), MAC (11-57), Sun-Belt (5-43), and Conference USA (4-44) in quality inter-conference play.
What that means is that the schools in the Mountain West are performing better against the “quality” conferences than any other conference in the nation, INCLUDING those quality conferences themselves.
It is important to note that I am not only speaking about the quantity of wins against the power conferences, though. Some of those wins came against struggling programs (Washington, Iowa State, etc.), but the Mountain West has also beaten some of the best within those conferences. The two most notable examples are when Utah defeated SEC runner-up Alabama (who spent much of the 2008 season ranked as the number one team in the nation) in BCS play last year, and when Brigham Young topped the #3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in week one of the 2009 season.
Need more proof that the Mountain West has performed well enough during this evaluation period to warrant an automatic BCS bid? Look no further than the top ten rankings.
Following the conclusion of the 2008 football season, the top ten spots in college football were owned by five different conferences (each claiming two of the spots). Those conferences were the SEC (Florida and Alabama), Big XII (Texas and Oklahoma), PAC-10 (USC and Oregon), Big Ten (Ohio State and Penn State), and you guessed it – the Mountain West (Utah and TCU). That means that the ACC and Big East (both current BCS conferences) could not even place a single team among the top 10 in the nation (Virginia Tech came closest at #15). As a side note, Utah was also the only team in the entire FBS to finish the season undefeated.
As for 2009, you can expect more of the same. In the most recent rankings for the 2009 season, Brigham Young currently sits among the top ten (ranked at seventh in the nation), with TCU (#16) and Utah (#18) not far behind.
All of those examples point to a single fact – the Mountain West currently is one of the best conferences in college football. They have certainly performed better than the Big East and the ACC, and have arguably been better than the PAC-10 or Big Ten in recent years. They have been the most successful conference in the NCAA when facing the current “power” conferences in football, and their best teams match up just as well as (or better than) the best teams from any other conference in the country (including national championship contenders such as the aforementioned Alabama and Oklahoma).
For the purposes of a BCS evaluation, taking recent history into account is VERY important. The BCS is a system that exists for the sole purpose of ensuring that the best teams in the nation play against each other during the college football bowl season. The best teams and conferences from ten years ago should have no influence on a decision about which team is CURRENTLY playing the best football. Recent history has proven that the Mountain West can be relied upon to consistently produce some of the best teams in college football. It is now time for the BCS to recognize that contribution by guaranteeing a BCS bid for the Mountain West champion every year.
If the BCS truly wishes to provide matchups between the best teams in the country, then the Mountain West MUST be an annual part of those matchups.
