Happy New Year - I Love College Football!

I don't know about you, but my holiday break is over and that means I am back to the grind of everyday life. So as I sit here at work, where I like to blog (I know, I should be working...It happens), I have realized something. I, Bronco Chase, have not posted many fruitful or enlightening nuggets for you my faithful readers for a few weeks. For that I apologize and promise to do better. As a token of my remorse I offer you this; a smorgasbord of stories, information, comedy, and heartbreak all combined into one amazing post. I hope you enjoy it and I hope even more that you can find it in your heart to forgive a wretch like me. I am aware that there are still bowl games to watch. However, the 7 match ups that are left happen to be spread out across 8 days. That means there is time to kill and that there are posts to add on this blog. Sit back and read...



The coaching carousel has begun, just as it does every year around this time. It does seem that things have been even crazier than normal. It must be the impending doom of humanity via Nostradamus and that dang Mayan calender. It's driving people nuts. Here is what we know so far:

-Florida ripped Will Muschamp from the grasps of Texas' defense and the baffling title of "coach-in-waiting." I think he will be great for the Gators. Muschamp is a fiery individual and that will bode well in Florida. Plus, he is actually from Gainesville. Along with that, he has somehow pried Charlie Weiss from the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs as his offensive coordinator. It's an all star cast down there.

Tell us how you really feel Mr. Muschamp


-Pitt had hired themselves a pretty good, emerging head man in Mike Haywood. He had resurrected a terrible Miami (OH) team from 1-11 to 9-4 and had earned a MAC Championship to show for it. Too bad he was arrested and charged with felony domestic abuse shortly after landing what many would consider a dream job. He was subsequently fired before he even had a chance to do much of anything. All this took place in a period of about 3 weeks. Nice work, Mr. Haywood. On the bright side, he left the Panthers with an undefeated record.

I know Mike, tell me about it!


-Maryland was on the cusp of hiring the pirate-crazy and eccentric former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach. Apparently they got cold feet last minute and went a different direction. They jacked Randy Edsall from UConn less than 24 hours after the Huskies were embarrassed by Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Congrats Terrapins. I guess Maryland is a better job than Connecticut...

This man scares me


-Miami hired Al Golden from Temple. That is a good hire as well.

-Michigan will most likely fire Rich Rodriguez after another mediocre season and a blow out loss in a bowl game.

It could be worse, I guess...


-West Virginia's Bill Stewart retired. I imagine Rich Rod wishes he had never left the comfy confines of Morgantown to navigate the choppy waters of Ann Arbor.

-Stanford's Jim Harbaugh is the hottest coach in the nation. Everybody wants him, including the San Francisco 49ers. His alma mater Michigan is waiting until after the Orange Bowl to try and pry him away from the Cardinal. It will be interesting to see what he decides to do.

-Everybody wants Coach Pete from Boise State as well. I don't see it happening. At least not yet.



The Big 10 had a terrible New Year's Day. 5 teams from that vaunted, glorious conference all lost their bowl games, some in amazing blow out fashion. Here's the breakdown:

TCU 21, Wisconsin 19 (Rose Bowl)
Texas Tech 45, Northwestern 38 (TicketCity Bowl)
Alabama 49, Michigan State 7 (Capital One Bowl)
Florida 37, Penn State 24 (Outback Bowl)
Mississippi State 52, Michigan 14 (Progressive Gator Bowl)

That is a huge blow to the reputation of the Big 10. Also, Ohio State's Gordon Gee and his "Little Sisters of the Poor" comment are now eating copious amounts of crow. How does that taste?!

Should this man really be talking about football?




Congratulations to TCU for their Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers. This is huge for them and for all non-AQ schools. It was a great game, hard fought, and the Horned Frogs were the better team. They play great defense. They deserve to be in a BCS conference. Boise State, you are next (I hope)!

Nice work Gary Patterson. Even the Gatorade is purple!




UConn may be the worst team to ever participate in a BCS Bowl Game. Maybe not quite the worst, but they are pretty high up there. Here is my list of the worst teams to ever defile a respected and important(?) BCS Game.

3. UConn Huskies, 2011
2. Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors, 2008
1. Pitt Panthers, 2006

I see two teams from the Big East on the list. I'm sensing a problem with that conference. TCU will own them.






That is all I have for now. I understand that it was bit choppy, but I had a lot of things to cover and get out of the way. Tomorrow will be more detail orientated and informative. Make sure you watch the Orange Bowl tonight. It will be a good one. I am personally cheering for the Hokies. Although, I don't like their chances.

Jim Delany and co. Resort to Empty Threats, Name Calling

"It" has really hit the fan now. Big 10 commissioner and giant egotistical d-bag Jim Delany has finally said what he and the rest of the BCS head honchos have all been thinking for years, and it is exactly what you think it is. The selfish, entitled elitists like him have really dug themselves in deep. Delany's statements are asinine. I was never able to fathom what kind of massive bullcrap is floating around that ugly balding head of his until now. But let's go back to the beginning and set the table for what went down yesterday.

It all started last Sunday, December 5th when the final BCS Rankings were released on ESPN. For some reason Boise State fell from 10th to 11th, swapping places with LSU. Nobody thought much of it because the computer ranking system is as ridiculous as it is convoluted. However, on Monday morning, BCS analyst Jerry Palm discovered an error in one of the computer's formula. Wes Colley didn't include the Appalachian State/Western Illinois playoff game in his rankings and that was enough to put the Tigers ahead of the Broncos. Go ahead and read the story here. Fortunately, Colley is the only one of the 6 computer that makes his formula public. He and BCS director Bill Hancock have since apologized.

First things first; what in the world does a Division 1-AA (FCS) playoff game have to do with the current BCS Rankings? It blows my mind. Add in the fact that whatever happened between Appalachian State and Western Illinois was enough to change the order of the rankings, and you have a problem. What if the erroneous computer scores had put the wrong team in a BCS Bowl? There would me mass hysteria and backlash for Mr. Colley and the BCS system. Also, how do we know the other 5 computers didn't make similar or more egregious mistakes? There's no way to check them because they are kept secret. In other words, the BCS blows and we have just another example why.

Anyway, as we all know, Boise State president Bob Kustra is never short on words. He is always at the front, carrying the "abolish the BCS" flag. Well he lit into Hancock, Colley, and anybody else who would listen about the lack of transparency and honesty in the computer ranking system. He sent a heated e-mail to all conference commissioners saying just that, which you can read here.

I agree with the points that Kustra made in the e-mail, but you knew that his actions and words were just going to escalate things even more, which they did.

Delany's and other conference heads' threats, or ultimatums if you will, can be read here. Here are some excerpts that sum of how he and the rest of the BCS-Conference schools feel;

From Jim Delany:
"The problem is your big stage takes away opportunities for my teams, to play on the stage they created in 1902."

"We gave up the Rose Bowl, the SEC gave up access to the Sugar Bowl, others were included but they never had access to any of this before. You have to understand who brought what to the table. Who's continuing to give and who's continuing to get."

From Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe:
"Don't push it past this because if you push it past this, the Big 12's position is we'll just go back to the old (bowl) system. You're getting the ability to get to places you've never gotten before. We've Jerry-rigged the free market system to the benefit of those institutions and a lot are institutions that don't even fill their stadiums."

Pac 10 commish Larry Scott:
"The six (BCS) conferences have bent over backwards and tried to be politically correct to their own detriment, probably further than they had to, maybe should have."

These are the juiciest parts. At least they finally told us how they really feel. What gives them the right to dictate and decide who is good enough to participate in their prestigious bowl games? Are all schools not playing the same game? It's like all non-AQ schools have leprosy. Basically, Delany and the rest are saying that Boise State, TCU, and Utah are lucky that they even get the scraps off of the big boys' BCS table. Ridiculous. It can only get worse for them. Saying things like this are like sending an open invitation to Congress and other government entities to investigate them even deeper for anti-trust violations.

So I ask; is the BCS a cartel? A corporation? A company? A business? A bunch of arrogant know-it-alls sitting in a room conspiring ways to maximize their financial intake while excluding deserving programs because they see them as inferior? Yes to all! The truth is finally out there straight from the horses' mouth, and it is not pretty.

So much for the chaos

Maybe we can compare it to a boxer taking a couple of shots but stands firm and ends of knocking out his opponent. The Big 12 is the triumphant fighter and the Pac 10 the latter. After all the threats, rumors, reports, stories, and general hooplah (including your's truly) the University of Texas is staying put. This has just been confirmed by the school after the Pac 10 commissioner first broke the news. The Longhorns were the ringleader of the realignment motion so this means that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and maybe Texas A & M are all remaining at home. So much for the super conference formerly known as the Pac 10. That leaves the Big 12 with 10 teams and the Big 10 with 12. No, they probably won't switch names. Maybe the Big 12 will try and patch itself back together with TCU or a combo of a couple of other schools. Dan Bebee deserves a lot of credit as the commissioner that kept the conference from complete destruction. As part of the deal, Texas gets their own TV network and a truckload of money to boot. After all, money was the number one reason why the conference realignment began.
Expect the Pac 10 to invite Utah to join. They need to get a 12th team to maintain balance and get the even number that they want. So the madness seems to be over, for now!

College Football Apocalypse...or just massive chaos

Alright, I need to chime in on the mass hysteria that is currently happening in the world of college football (which is my favorite thing in the world, by the way). There is one way that I can sum up the state of affairs; Holy crap! As you might expect, I have a somewhat unique/biased perspective, being a huge fan of Boise State. For me, it will all come down to whether or not the Broncos make the jump to the Mountain West Conference or not. But a lot needs to happen before that invitation will or will not happen. It's the waiting game, just like it has been for years for the Broncos. So in other words, nothing has really changed for Boise State, yet…
It seems that everybody is jumping ship, bailing from the Big 12 Conference. I still haven't figured out a real good reason to do that, as it has been one of the strongest conferences in the nation. Oh wait, money, that's right! Nebraska is in for a HUGE yearly paycheck from the lucrative Big 10 Conference and their TV/marketing deal. Colorado may have made a lateral slide financially speaking. However, they have played "bottom-of-the-barrel" status in the BIG 12 for quite a while and sometimes new scenery and new friends is the best way to break out of a funk. We will see what happens with that. Look on the bright side Buffalo fans; it really can't get any worse. It will be interesting to see what happens with ex-Boise State Bronco coach Dan Hawkins and Colorado this season, as he was mercifully granted another year to lead the team. It's bowl game or bust for Hawk and the Buff's. We will see if he makes it to be a Pac 10 coach.
But what happens now? I have two options that I think will happen. Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A & M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State will leave the Big 12 and join the now Pac 16, making it a super conference. That will leave Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, and Baylor left, which is 1 less than the needed 6 to maintain legitimate NCAA status as a conference. They may try and snag TCU, Utah, BYU, or maybe a SEC, ACC, or Big East school or two to recreate the Big 8. I have a hard time seeing someone from the SEC, ACC, or Big East leaving, but TCU would love to get back into the prime time, and BYU and Utah deeply desire automatic qualifying status. After all, if you take Utah you have to take BYU, preserving the rivalry. If that doesn't happen, option two is the Big 12 dissolving with the 5 schools mentioned above going to the Pac 16. Missouri may end up going to the Big 10 anyway, so the other 4 schools would try and get snagged by the other BCS conferences. Kansas and Kansas State should go to the ACC, as they have rich basketball tradition. Think of Kansas vs. NC and Duke each year! That would be great. The Mountain West will try and snag one or two of them as well, be it Iowa State, Baylor, or Missouri. They want to become a BCS conference and getting one or more of those three teams would help, maybe even push them over the top to achieve it. Baylor, Iowa State, and Missouri will put up huge resistance to join a "lesser" conference, not wanting to take a step back. If the Mountain West can't get one of the schools from the former Big 12, then Boise State is the back up plan. The Broncos may not be quite enough to give them the elite status of achievement needed to become and A.Q. school, but it will help a lot and will get them even closer.
Alright, let's take a step back and a deep breath. Ready? So it seems that Boise State is relegated to "just in case" status. I'm OK with that and it makes a lot of sense for the Mountain West to do that. It's like when the best-looking chick rejects you and so you have to go for the not-as-good-looking friend as a consolation prize. The kinda' pretty friend feels a little bad, but what other options are there? Boise State needs a better conference than the WAC and needs better competition. The Mountain West will provide that, even if TCU, BYU, or Utah leave.
Just a side note to all of this, I think Notre Dame is in huge trouble if they don't join a conference. It appears we are heading to a few super-conferences in the college football world and if Notre Dame doesn't jump on the bandwagon they may be left out in the cold. Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground.
As with the rest of what has been said and will be said on the subject of conference realignment, we will have to wait and see what happens. So whether we have a complete collegiate apocalypse, just a few schools moving, or something in the middle, the education system, er, college sports, is about to change forever. It should be good, really crazy, but good.