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August 1, 2007

ESPN fluffing Boise State


Boise State Fan

As I pointed out earlier today, ESPN has been releasing its Top 119 Programs from the past 10 years (1997-2006). Boise State came in at #16. In my opinion, that's bafflingly high.

Fifteen of ESPN's college football "experts" and analysts ranked all 119 Division I-A programs, apparently taking into account:
  • Record - Boise won 97 games from '97-'06. That's tied with Ohio State for second most overall wins during that period. However, 94 of those wins came against teams that BCS conference members get criticized for playing! BSU is 3-12 (by my count) against BCS conference schools, and only one of those wins came on green turf. Yes, they posted a ton of wins, but against a gigantic pile of directional colleges, fictitious states and hyphenated schools.

  • Traditions - Other than blue turf, what are Boise's traditions of merit? Anyone?

  • Recruiting - They have never had a Top 25 recruiting class. If ESPN is going to list recruiting as a factor in the rankings, there's no way that Boise scores well.

  • Facilities - Their stadium seats 30k.

  • Coaches - I'll give them points here as they've been a great farm league program for giving other schools solid leaders. Granted none of their former coaches has ever won a BCS game or conference title upon leaving Boise. But they aren't "bad" coaches.

  • Attendance and support - They don't sellout all their games in glorified high school stadium.

  • Other criteria -I'll give them style points for winning a great game against OU, but good grief. Enough points to make them #16 in the rankings?
Color me unimpressed.

Even more shocking...Ivan Maisel was on the ESPNU College Football Podcast last week. During the show he said that (paraphrase): "We have Boise State at #16, and that's probably a little low."

I wouldn't have Boise in the Top 25.

PWD

15 comments:

Ben Coronado said...

It is readily apparent that you know very little about Boise State and college football for that matter. But then again who in he>> are you?
Give it a rest and get back to your computer blogging while Mom fixes your lunch and dinner.

dsoule said...

PWD
I could not agree more. They have 1 big win in the history of the school and if your putting together a list of the greatest college football games ever it would definatly be in the top 5. However when you look at programs, and some of the teams they are ahead of??? i'm sure the Penn State fans love seeing how their program has fallen behind a team that plays in front of 30,000 fans on a frozen blue carpet.
and as for you Benjamin... the guy stated an opinion, and presented some facts to back up his opinion. you may disagree, but do it with some class and leave the trashtalking b.s. to the espn.com message board. if your going to post, post something intelligent,

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah PWD, Ben's right! You can take your formidable argument and itemized list of facts and go home!

Billy Merck said...

It's the last ten years, not all time, and Penn State has been mostly terrible for the past ten years.

Yes, Boise has mostly beaten crappy Big West and WAC teams, but that's because those are the conferences they have played in. I would be interested to see how some of those Boise teams would have performed in a power conference, and I would be willing to bet at least a couple of them would have finished with similar records (last year's included).

16 may be a little high, but it's not "outrageous". Boise State has had an outstanding program for the past 10 years.

And I would contest your characterization of their support. I lived in Reno briefly, and when Boise came to town the entire town was Orange and Blue. If they fail to sell out at home, it's probably because ripping some of those direction schools you mentioned 62-0 gets a little boring.

Oliver said...

PWD,
You are spot-on with your assessment. I remember when UGA was to open against the Broncos a couple of years back. Many predicted upsets. I took on all comers and maintained that while anything COULD happen, UGA WOULD whoop their asses. Zabranksy (NCAA coverboy) threw 5 picks and got benched, the Dawgs rolled and immediately thereafter Boise's national stature went completely down the proverbial drain. This year, there is another team with an "explosive" offense heading into Athens to open the season. CMR will have us ready to play and I anticipate another cakewalk for UGA. I know this sounds cocky, but I am just basing this prediction on the facts that UGA plays considerably well in their home openers, OSU already lost their starting LB and #2 receiver for the game, and their having to go on the road to an SEC stadium packed with 92,000 rabid fans gives us an even bigger edge when we're already a more talented and better coached team. (sorry about that last sentence) I've eaten crow before. It'll probably happen again. I'll take any bet that says I won't that Saturday.

Unknown said...

Billy,

They are 3-12 against quality teams over the past 10 years. How on earth can you ignore that mountain of evidence and say that they would've been competitive?

They got their butts handed to them by above average to mediocre teams like ARK, South Carolina, Washington, WSU and OSU.

Georgia was the only top quality team they played prior to the OU game.

3-12

That's not even remotely competitive.

Anonymous said...

for the love of god what has boise state done to become the 16th best college program in the nation. you have got to be kidding me. i'll tell you what they would be if they were in a power conference... they would win 25% of their games. can anyone, i mean anyone tell me what they have done besides beat OU last year, and that was a miracle. i mean the next biggest victory in the history of the school is against oregon state last year. thats something to hang our hat on..

Jason said...

Ben -

Please. Placing Boise State in the Top 25 of any ranking of college teams over the past 10 years is a joke. An absolute joke.

How would have Boise performed in a power conference? Great question - here are some results.

Boise State played 3 BCS teams in 2005. They lost all 3 games.

Boise State played 2 BCS teams in 2004. They beat Oregon State and lost to Louisville.

As PWD mentioned, their record against BCS teams is 3-12. How would they have performed? By all analytical measures, not well.

I'm sure you're an amazing WAC or Boise home, Ben, because that's really the only way I could chock someone up to being that freakin' insane. #16? Of all college programs in the past 10 years?

In 1997, Boise State lost to Cal State Northridge 62-23. Cal State Northridge! They were in the Big West Conference prior to 2000. Hell, the WAC didn't even exist until 2001, as I recall.

To even come close to insinuating that Boise State belongs in the Top 25 ranking of collegiate football programs in the past 10 years is absurd. End of discussion. All this basically shows is that the so-called WWL is pimping 'Who's now' at the expense of any reasoned evidence.

Anonymous said...

Well, nothing surprises me when it comes to ESPN. They have no credibility in my book considering the pandering and butt-kissin' they do for teams that ABC/ESPN has rights to show. Let us not forget some of last year's Game of the Week crap!

And for benjamin, the more we know about Boise State football, the more their ESPN ranking looks like a farce. My assessment is that they are still hyped at the David defeating Goliath mentality, even though the OU team they beat wasn't all that great.

Anonymous said...

Yeah that another good point. It's not like they beat a powerhouse OU team from a few years ago, they beat a OU team that backed their way into the BIG 12 Championship only to just slip by a pretty unamazing Nebraska team. Not that OU wasn't great, but they were probably the weakest BSC conference champ since the the 04' Pitt squad.

Anonymous said...

Benjamin,
You are no longer allowed to watch college football.

Anonymous said...

btw stafford on the front page of espn.com's college football page

JasonC said...

Maybe Eva Longoria went to BSU... as sorry as I am to "out myself", I saw one of those Who's Now segments and Tony Parker was getting more respect because of his wife than his NBA title. So maybe Eva is a BSU alum or something like that.

peacedog said...

Boise State won a BCS bowl game. That's the equivalent of a "BCS conference" team winning a national title.

Which is 200 kinds of absurd, but probably the thought process at work.

Billy Merck said...

I'm not gonna argue the point anymore, because it's obvious what all of you think of Boise, but Jason, the WAC was formed in 1962. Boise joined the WAC in 2001. The Mountain West Conference was formed in 1999 out of former WAC members, and I guess that's what you meant or were thinking about, but let's attempt to maintain some sense of accuracy as we trash Boise St.

 
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