Monday, September 06, 2010

What Boise State's win means for BC

Now that they've cleared one hurdle Boise State will become one of the focal points of the college football season. "Will they go undefeated?" and "Should they be in the BCS Championship Game?" will be debated endlessly. In a way a Boise State run might be just what college football and BC need. If you get a Paper Tiger, small-market champion, the TV networks and the power conferences might finally break down and get a true playoff. BC needs to support any playoff effort since we are nonfactors in the bowl process. Under the current system BC will only get into the title game with a perfect season. With a playoff, we would only have to win the ACC. A playoff is more merited based. A playoff doesn't care about ticket sales. A playoff might mean home games at Alumni. A playoff will mean more money. BC needs to get behind the playoff movement. All that said, I think Boise will lose a regular season game this year and fall out of the discussion.


Meanwhile Virginia Tech looked like the team we have come to know so well. Plenty of speed, but stagnant offense and certainly vulnerable. That game will be a huge test for Spaz. Not only does he need to get the team ready for their first ACC game, but he also needs to develop a game plan that is not as conservative (cowardly?) as last year's VT game. Even with our problems, it is a winnable game.

7 comments:

Dan said...

I liked this outcome because it showed us Williams/ Evans can be stopped and VT's young Dline can be pushed around and run on. Both will be keys to us having a chance.

What I didn't like is that Tyrod is still a great run threat and VT's recent history of early season losses followed with a string of victories.

Walter said...

I like your spin on how Boise's State's win is actually good for BC, since I'm more inclined to see the reasons why it's bad.

There are certainly other one loss teams that would get considered before we would for the national championship (if we had one loss), but it would depend entirely upon the circumstances and when we had the loss.

I can see that we're similar in scope, maybe, to Boise State, but we are a part of a major BCS conference. We play vastly more talented opponents than they do, and I don't mind getting to the national championship the standard way.

But back to this game, I don't think (as usual (sigh)) it looks good for the ACC after this weekend. We lost both high profile games, so if we do manage the upset of VTech, it won't mean as much to voters.

Unknown said...

Fuck boise state

mod34b said...

One point about Boise that is quite interesting is recruiting.

How many 4 star players did VT successfully recruit between 2006-2010? 23

How many did BC get during the same time? 10

And Boise: 1

in fact, Boise just landed it's first 4-star in 2010. From 2006 thru 2009 they had zero 4 star recruits, yet have played toe-to-toe with the big boys every year (when given the chance).

If you look at Rivals you can see that BC has out recruited Boise every year. In fact I think Boise has never been in the top 50 recruiting classes since at least 2005 (as far back as I checked)

Moral: If Boise can play at high levels with lesser recruits and be in the BCS picture every year, then so can BC

eagleboston said...

Mod 34,

There are a couple differences between Boise and BC. First, Boise is a public school with 18,000 students, nearly twice as big as BC. Second, their academic requirements are not nearly as stringent as BC's. Third, they have much better fan support. They fill their stadium and BC struggles all season to get a capacity crowd. Those advantages are why they are in the Top 10 and BC struggles to get into the Top 20 each season. This does not mean BC cannot get to Boise's level, but it does mean that BC has a more uphill battle.

As far as Va Tech is concerned, I think the BC offense can put up points on Tech, but I am not sure our defense can stop Taylor and Co. Boise has a lot more speed on defense than BC and they were struggling to contain Taylor. With our continued lack of pass rush (and Quinn will still be suspended), Taylor will have a hey day against BC. Thus, BC will need to put up a lot of points and they will need to be nearly perfect on special teams.

But, first we have to beat Kent State.

mod34b said...

Eagle Boston --

I don't understand your point.

1. Attendance. BSU does not sell out every game and BC has better avg. attendance than does BSU (however, BSU has a smaller stadium than BC does, and BSU does come closer to selling out than does BC, but it does not sell out its games reflecting a lack of full demand).

2. BSU has 18,000 student. Ok. BC has 14,000 students. Ok. What is your point here?

3. BSU is public and BC is not? So?

4. Their academic requirment are less stringent than BC's. True. But if that made a difference, BSU would able to look past academic flaws and get higher rated recruits than BC. But that is not true. Every year since at least 2005, BC has attracted more well regarded recruits than has BSU.

From this you say: "Those advantages are why they are in the Top 10 and BC struggles to get into the Top 20 each season."

So, EB, I don't get your point. What am I missing?

My point was that BSU does well with lower level recruits, and BC can too.

Ry said...

the biggest difference between boise state and bc in this regard is the schedule. yes boise has put up big number sin the wins column, but my gut tells me that is way easier to do when you only have one or two true contests per season. only having to get up for one game per year, and at the very beginning to boot, is a lot different than playing a more demanding sec or even big east schedule.