Utah Victory Impacts Nation
January 3rd, 2009 byUtah pulled of one of the biggest upsets so far in the college football season last night when the beat the no. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide 31-17. The Utes impressive victory came on the side of the ball that received the least attention this season by the way of the defense. The defense had an amazing 8 sacks and forced 3 turnovers in an unexpected dominating performance. Many may not understand the significance of this win, but it will affect the rest of college football around America. The Utes capped off the only undefeated season in the NCAA Division I this season with a perfect record of 13-0 and their huge win over Alabama will be felt for many months to come. The win for the Utes was the victory the small schools around the nation needed to change the way polls rank teams from here on out.
Utah comes from a non-BCS conference and received the invite to the Allstate Sugar Bowl by an at-large bid. The Utes were squared off with what was the best team in college football for much of the latter part of the season. Alabama closed out the second half of the regular season holding onto the #1 ranking. It wasn’t until the week after the regular season in the SEC Championship when the Crimson Tide received their first loss of the season against the Florida Gators. The loss in the SEC Championship game knocked the Crimson Tide out of their chance for a National Title and into the Sugar Bowl against Utah. Utah entered the game as a 10 point underdog with 89% of the nation picking Alabama to win. The Utes would pull of the impossible and dominate the team that went through the potent SEC undefeated this season. The win for Utah marks huge implications around college football for the “little-guys.”
Utah can now make the claim legitimately that they deserved to play for a National Championship. Utah only received the #9 ranking in the nation despite their undefeated record against a fairly weak schedule. However, now this will make voters think twice before keeping an undefeated team out of a National Championship game when both teams in the Title game have at least one loss. Utah has made a loud noise for the smaller schools around college football. The next time a Boise State, a BYU, or another less popular football team ends a season undefeated they will have a firm argument to play for a National Championship. After all, Boise State and Utah both have won the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in the last 3 years. Everyone remembers the statue of liberty handoff that led Boise State running back into the end zone in over time to give the Broncos the victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. The small schools are starting to make a name for themselves as consistent threats in the Bowl Games and it will not be long before voters start to acknowledge their late season success.
College Football enthusiasts and fans have longed desired for a playoff system in the NCAA. Many people believe that type of system would really benefit teams from the SEC and perhaps the Big 12 with their records in postseason play over the years. The SEC especially feels they would benefit the most from a playoff scenario considering every year that has at least two teams in BCS Bowl games. However, Utah exposed what we could call a myth of the SEC status amongst the College Football totem poll. A playoff system might benefit the smaller conferences and non-BCS schools as much as it would the national powerhouses across the land. Utah’s win opens the eyes for many people in college football especially in the days leading to the National Championship game with Florida and Oklahoma. Florida has been perceived as the favorite to win and with Utah’s dominate performance over Alabama one must wonder if that will affect the way the betting public acts on the game. Alabama nearly beat Florida and the Gators reputation as the best in the nation may have diminished with the Utes victory last night.
Utah victory will perhaps have people thinking twice about the strength of schedule a team has during the regular season. Is it Utah’s fault or any other team for that matter that they have an undefeated season and the rest of the conference plays poorly that season? A team should be rewarded for an undefeated season, but nobody could have expected Utah to beat Alabama. This gives all the more reason to institute a playoff system considering the BCS has been exposes to yet another weakness. With the system we have today, there can actually be co-national champions for those that are not familiar with the college football postseason. In recent years, teams have won the national championship game while another team may end the year ranked #1 giving both teams a share of the National Title. While Utah will likely not jump all the way to #1 this season, the Texas Longhorns do have that chance. The Longhorns beat the Oklahoma Sooners this season in their lone loss. However, Oklahoma is in the National Title proving once again while the BCS System has failed miserably. If the Sooners beat Florida in the National Championship, Texas will have the possibility by voters to receive the # 1 ranking in the polls. While the scenario is unlikely to happen, another college football season will end without truly knowing who is the very best across the nation. Utah can definitely make their argument along with a cast of other one loss teams.
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January 3rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
“Utah only received the #9 ranking in the nation despite their undefeated record against a fairly weak schedule?”
I love ya man, but wtf? BTW, I am a WSU Cougar, not a Ute. However, I hate it when sports writers get it wrong. I guess its the lawyer in me. More often than not sports writers are so enamored with the purported “major conferences” that they believe these are the only football conferences with real “strength of schedule.” First, the Mountain West Football Conference is clearly a tougher conference than say the ACC or Big East. One could even argue that the the Mountain West was better than the Big Ten and PAC 10 this year ( Mountain West teams beat PAC 10 teams in five (5) out of six (6) games during the regular season.)
Utah has played a schedule that rivals any of the alleged Big Conferences schedules. Don’t believe me? Lets look at the evidence. You have to love evidence, I wish the media would look at the evidence once in a while instead of gloss over it. Even more, outside of the world of sports writing, I wish the media would actually be intellectually honest in its reporting instead of pushing a political agenda. Sorry, I digress…
Utah played a Big Ten Conference opponent on the road. Yes, Michigan went 3-9 this season, but any road game to a Big Conference deserves credit. Michigan also was not expected to be this bad when Utah scheduled them.
Utah also faced and beat the No. 3 Pac-10 team. The Utes faced Oregon State at home and beat them.
As for the rest of Utah’s schedule, they played five teams that are bowl-bound in Air Force, Oregon State, Colorado State, TCU, and BYU. According to the latest AP Poll, TCU is No. 11, BYU is No. 17, and Oregon State is No. 24. Oregon State, as I remember, beat USC.
How does Utah’s schedule compare to Florida and Oklahoma?
Florida went 12-1. Loosing to Ole Miss, who laid a spanking on Texas Tech. They played several teams heading to bowl games, but most were in-conference opponents. Since Florida plays in a big conference, they will have more teams in their conference heading to bowl games.
In their out-of-conference schedule, Florida played Hawaii, Miami (FL), and Florida State who are all bowl-bound. Florida also played I-AA Citadel, so they should be knocked down a little for this win.
As for Oklahoma, they also went 12-1 and played several in-conference teams headed to bowls, including Texas and Texas Tech, who got spanked by Ole Miss.
Oklahoma’s non-conference schedule included Cincinnati and TCU, who are bowl-bound. They also went on the road to Washington, who is the worst team in the Pac-10 and played I-AA Chattanooga.
Basically, Utah took a chance with their non-conference schedule and was the only team of the three to go undefeated. If someone from a self-described Big Conference went undefeated, they would automatically be placed in the National Championship Game. Is this fair? No, its BS!
Let’s take a look at Cincinnati, and if they went 13-0. Their non-conference opponents were Eastern Kentucky, at Oklahoma, Miami (OH), Akron, and at Hawaii. Only Miami and Akron are not going to bowl games.
As for the rest of the BCS contenders, how does Utah’s schedule compare? They out-do several of the other BCS bowl opponents.
USC played Virginia on the road, and Ohio State and Notre Dame at home.
The rest of the teams only had one arguably tough non-conference game.
Penn State played at Syracuse. Ohio State played at USC. Virginia Tech played at Nebraska. Texas played Arkansas at home. Alabama played at Clemson.
Basically, everyone playing in the BCS has decent schedules, but Utah went above and beyond what everyone else did. They knew they needed to because of what some writer’s perceive as their so-called weaker conference schedule.
If you’re not in a BCS Conference, you don’t have a chance to go to the National Championship Game. What more does a school like Utah have to do to get some credibility. Maybe, respect would come if they had won all their prior BCS Bowl Games? Oh ya, they already did that.
Only 65 teams are actually competing for the National Championship. Its BS, its anti-American, anti-college athletics, and anti-competition. What if the NCAA Tourney was conducted in the same way. See ya.. Gonzaga, UNLV, Davidson, Xavier, Winthrop, Memphis, George Mason, etc. People would be screaming bloody murder. How is it acceptable in college football? I am a PAC 10 guy. Although my school sucked arse this year with one of the worst records in the country, every year I take comfort in the fact that if my team wins its conference we go to a BCS bowl and quite possibly a national championship. Utah fans do not have that luxury.
You argue that the BCS is broken. I argue that it worked in exactly the way it was designed to work. Its designed to make sure the self-described big dawgs are the only teams playing in the big dance. It worked perfectly in this regard. Two one loss teams playing for the national title when Utah is undefeated. Would we stop the Arizona Cardinals from playing in the Superbowl simply because its conference is not as strong as the New England Patriots? No we wouldn’t. The BCS is a freaking tragedy. The only way to correct it, the only way to fix it, is for the AP to give the National Championship to Utah. This is the only way to send a clear message to the BCS. I hope the AP will finally do the right thing and give Utah the title.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Wow, Kade, you did your research. I’m impressed. Argument is legit.