KICKED OUT...Literally!!

Finally…we can move on now! The Boise State Bronco’s lost a thriller in Reno last night 34-31 in overtime to #19Nevada. What a great ballgame! Now that’s what I’m talking about. Boise State playing on the road in a hostile environment against a top 25 ranked team. For the first time in five years they had to go on the road and play somebody. Did you hear that Kirk Herbstreit? They had to play on the road in a hornets nest. Kirk is notorious for saying, “I’ll take Boise State on a neutral field against anybody”. It sounds stupid every time he says it. You don’t play your season on neutral fields man! I’m not going to say, “I told you so” because I’ve been saying it for five years now. In order to be worthy of playing for the national title you have to play the same grueling schedule that everyone else is playing. That means going on the road and playing ranked opponents.

Earlier this season three # 1 ranked teams went down on the road in hostile environments. First, Alabama went to South Carolina and fell. The following week Ohio State traveled to Wisconsin’s Camp- Randall Stadium and stumped it’s toe. Then Oklahoma went to Mizzou on homecoming with College GameDay in town and got it’s bubble burst. Playing on the road is the price you have to pay in order to win the crystal ball.

I thought that it was an absolute joke when Boise State played Virginia Tech the first game of the season in Baltimore and not in Blacksburg. Then I heard the so-called experts saying that it was a Hokie home game because there were more Virginia Tech fans there than Bronco fans. Are you kidding me? Playing down the street from my crib is not playing at my crib. Boise State has systematically played all big games for the past few years at home on the blue turf or at neutral sites. They just happened to be forced into the Nevada game at Reno because the Wolfpack are in their conference and just happened to be ranked this year. No way out of it. I’ve always said that they couldn’t do anything about their conference schedule but they needed to schedule their non-conference opponents to home and home contracts. You can’t play Oregon at home like they did last year and refuse to go to Eugene this year. If that would’ve happen we wouldn’t be talking about Boise State now. Instead they went out and scheduled Toledo this year. What the…?

When you were a kid and you went to your buddies house to play ball and you got beat. What’s the first thing you said to him? Let’s go to my house and were going to play with my ball. Right? It works the same way in big time college and pro football. Boise State is like the kid that doesn’t get loud until his mother comes outside. He really doesn’t want to fight, he just acts like it.

I’ve been saying for years that I thought that the Bronco’s were a very good team but they didn’t deserve to play for the title for those reasons. Would it have been fair if Auburn had lost yesterday at Alabama in a battle, after playing the schedule they’ve had to play all year, only to watch Boise State walk into the title game? Not at all. Do I think that they could’ve won the title game if they had gotten in? Sure! Anybody could have. It’s one game that both teams have a month to prepare for. Anything could happen. We see it happen all of the time during the bowl season. One team comes out sharp and the other regresses over the layoff somehow. I’m just glad to see that it worked out like it always does. I only want to see the two best teams in the country play in the title game. I don’t care about the other teams that are stuck in the queue. What’s your opinion?

Jay Graves