Signing Day Winners and Losers

Some like to compare signing day to the NFL draft. I'm not one of those people. There are way too many intangibles when it comes to recruiting high school seniors to consider it even close to the NFL draft. For every 4 and 5 star recruit that pans out to be what he's supposed to be, there is another recruit of the same status that falls flat on their face. The same cannot be said for the NFL draft. Also, for every 4 and 5 star recruit to make it, there is a 3 or 2 star recruit that everyone passed on because they didn't go to the "right" school, or show the right flashes.

Hence it's hard to immediately judge a signing day, or even think about judging a signing day, but if you look at where certain teams finished the day, you can start to shine a light on certain programs and the direction they're moving in.

Winners

USC - Finishing #1 in the country after falling out of the top 10 at one point this season was a huge accomplishment for Lane Kiffin. I had actually foreseen Kiffin falling flat on his face; Obviously I was wrong and it looks like Kiffin will, on paper, have a team capable of winning a national championship in the next couple of years.

UCLA - For as impressed as I was with Kiffin and USC, I was probably more impressed with Rick Neuheisel who was able to get UCLA into the top 10, even after a relatively poor 2009. The fact that UCLA showed flashes of improvement in 2009 makes this 2010 recruiting class that much more dangerous for the rest of the NCAA, especially their PAC 10 rivals.

Tennessee - Losing their head coach actually may have helped this team in recruiting. With Kiffin still in town, the Vols were recruiting well, but not great. Kiffin's departure had little to no effect on the Volunteers recruiting efforts, raising the question if Kiffin ever had any swagger in the SEC to begin with?

Hawaii - Hawaii jolted to number 65 yesterday after swimming around the mid 80's most of the season. Though it sounds pretty bad, consider that Hawaii's recruiting class was the strongest of their rivals in 2010, including Boise State, Nevada, and that school in Texas coached by June Jones. This recruiting class is a great morale boost for this program.

Missouri - The team in the Big 12 no one really talks about but is actually pretty good. Mizzou picked up six four star recruits en route to catapulting the team to the #21 spot in this years recruiting class. Though Missouri have flirted around this area for the past couple of years, for Mizzou to still be doing this well after a year that saw the program come back down to earth is a sign that this program is for real.

Losers

Miami - What the heck is the U doing at #24? No five stars? Only six four stars? Ouch. Something needs to be done to revitalize this program and it starts at head coach. This is a program that should be winning championships, not struggling to outrecruit USF.

Notre Dame - A number 14 finish is great on a national scale, but for a program that notoriously finished top 10 in recruiting under Charlie Weiss, you have to wonder how good Weiss really was at that whole recruiting thing. Recruiting for Notre Dame is harder than it sounds, especially with bigger, more party friendly schools going after some of the same recruits. I've got a feeling the Irish will be back in the top 10 of recruiting next year.

Michigan - If this team wants to rebuild successfully recruiting classes finishing 20th aren't going to cut it. If this is the last year of what looks to be a faile Rodriguez expirement, whoever takes over the program will bare the burden of this mediocre class.

TCU - A BCS team in the state of Texas that finished 46th in recruiting? Ouch. I didn't expect the Horned Frogs to finish top 20, but top 40 was reasonable. Something has to be up if this team can't tap into that talent pool. There are enough quality players in Texas to get this team a top 40 recruiting class. Especially after their past two seasons. To give the program some credit, being top 50 in the country is a sign of progress for a program that at one point was considered lower tier in Texas.

Boise State - I know it's the system, not the players that wins on the Smurf Turf, but number 82? For a team that expects to be in the National Championship game next year, recruiting number 82nd doesn't exactly help the Broncos when it comes to being taken seriously by the media. Personally, I think the Broncos deserve a shot at the top, but I also think they should be recruiting better than Hawaii, Kent State, and Toledo.

Boise State Go Undefeated, Become National Contender

With their upset win over the undefeated and impressive TCU Horned Frogs, the Boise State Broncos solidified their programs status amidst the nation's elite on Monday. The 17-10 win gave the Broncos their second BCS win in four years, and gave the Broncos their second win over a BCS team in 2009 (they opened their season with a home win over the Oregon Ducks).

It's a shame that Boise State are in the WAC, a conference that embarrassed itself this bowl season, but it's a bigger shame that "big conference" schools refuse to schedule Boise. I understand why a powerhouse like USC, Ohio State, Texas, or LSU would avoid scheduling Boise; they have nothing to gain and everything to lose; But I can't understand why a rising program or mid-level program like Kansas, BYU, or USF would avoid scheduling the Broncos? After all, the Broncos are almost always guaranteed to end their season in the Top 25.

I suppose the only way for Boise State to really gain respect and constant national championship contention is to relocate to either the Mountain West or the Big 12. The Mountain West seems like a better fit (especially with the conferences very likely automatic BCS bid), but I think the Big 12 makes more sense. If the Big 10 expands, and with the ACC's 2005 expansion, the Big 12 will need to make a move to stay on top of those conferences; no better move to make than by adding a team with two BCS wins in the past four years. Though the Big 12 would make more sense, I think Boise would move to the Mountain West if they could.

As for tonight's game, you have to believe the better team love. I spent the entire season pumping TCU as if I was a fan, but the Horned Frogs never looked like they were supposed to win tonight. It came down to Boise being able to play better on defense than TCU were on offense. I think TCU did a lot for the Mountain West this year (and Utah, BYU, Air Force, and Wyoming did just as much in their bowls), but Boise State will surpass the Mountain West as the biggest winners of the Bowl season with their win.

Now it's time for Boise State to go prime time and get the heck out of the WAC.

Wyoming Top Fresno State: Mountain West 1, WAC 0

In the precursor to the Fiesta Bowl, Wyoming and Fresno State went to double overtime in the New Mexico Bowl.

If you watched the game, you had to be impressed by Wyoming's true freshman Quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels.

Though the game was, on paper, one of the least interesting of the 34 Bowl Games, it will likely go down as one of the 10 best this Bowl series.

It also poses the question of how good is the WAC? Fresno State were 6-2 in conference, and 2-3 (including the loss to Wyoming) out of conference for the 2009 season. Their losses were to Wyoming, Cincinnati and Wisconsin; Their wins came against Cal-Davis and Illinois.

This win will bode well for the Mountain West, where Wyoming were ranked #5 and pulled off the win over the WAC's #3. Wyoming were 3-2 (including the win over Fresno State) out of conference in 2009. Their wins came against Fresno State, Weber State, and Florida Atlantic; Their losses were to Texas and Colorado.

As we know, Boise State and TCU will ultimately settle the Mountain West vs WAC score.

Boise State or TCU: Does Either Have a Shot at the BCS?

For the past several years small conference teams have made a push for the BCS. There were the 2006 Boise Broncos, the 2007 Hawaii Warriors, and the 2008 Utah Utes, all of which made it to a big time bowl with both the 06 Broncos and 08 Utes making a case that they could've contended in the National Championship game.

2009 has been no different. The season began with Boise defeating Oregon and staking their claim as the best minor in the country. Two days later BYU upset Oklahoma. The next week Conference USA team the University of Houston Cougars defeated Oklahoma State, shuttling that program into the mix as well. As of week two of the season Boise, BYU, Utah, Houston, and TCU were all making an impressive case as this years "BCS Buster."

But there's a reason why it's so hard to make the BCS National Championship Game, and that's what makes College Football so exciting.

The gauntlet began week 3 as Utah went down 24-31 at Oregon crippling the teams national title hopes; they're currently ranked #19. The same week BYU got clobbered at home 28-54 against Florida State. Week 4 Houston lost it's only game thus far at the University of Texas El Paso 41-58, the team is currently ranked #15.

That leaves Boise State and TCU as the only two contenders remaining. At the moment TCU rank 6 in the BCS while Boise rank #7. It's likely that two of the teams ahead of them will lose games from here on out, shuttling the two teams to a probably #4 and #5 respectably.

If Oregon defeat USC this week, that would do wonders for Boise State's national title hopes. In week 1 Boise defeated Oregon 19-8. With a weak schedule after that game, there is likely no hope that the Brocnos play in the championship game with an Oregon win this week. Even with an Oregon win, it's likely Boise's incredibly soft schedule will prevent them from playing the SEC winner this January.

TCU on the other hand have a highly ranked defense, and have one more game against a ranked opponent, Nov 14 vs Utah. If the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs can win that one impressively, the way the dominated BYU 38-7 on the road, TCU would have made a great case for earning a shot at the national title; especially with wins Clemson and BYU on their resume.

Personally I feel as though if a non major conference winner is going to make a run at the BCS championship game this is going to be the year. If USC, Iowa, and Texas lose a game at some point from here on out, there's an incredible chance the the Horned frogs will play the SEC winner in the national championship game this year.

I also feel as though TCU are the better team than Boise, but who knows? I know that it's a different year and different teams, but my logic stems from the results of this past seasons 2008 Poinsettia Bowl, which TCU squeaked by 17-16. The game went on to be the most underrated football game of 2008. Bar-none.

So if you like Cinderella stories and you want TCU or Boise to get their chance, stay tuned to this blog because I'll keep you up to date with what needs to happen for these teams to get a shot.

Boise State Don't Belong in the National Title Picture

First things first let me get this off my chest; The Boise State Broncos have the best uniforms in sports. Not college sports, not just football, but all of sports.

Phew. That feels good.

Now let me get this next thing off my chest; the 2009 Boise State Broncos will not do enough in the 2009 season to earn a spot in the BCS National Title Game, or arguably the BCS in general.

I'm not questioning Boise's talent; personally I think that if they ended up in the championship game against Alabama (sorry Florida) they'd do well. Unfortunately for them, they're in the WAC and they've only got one game against a ranked opponent on their entire schedule for the season, a week 1 home stand against the Oregon Ducks, a very good opponent.

Boise beat the Ducks, convincingly, but that isn't enough to warrant a shot against Alabama. Especially if USC goes to Oregon and beats the Ducks. That'd give USC wins over Ohio State, Cal, Notre Dame, and Oregon. If USC come out of that schedule with one loss, they definitely belong ahead of Boise in polls.

Texas, Virginia Tech, Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Kansas, Oklahoma State, LSU, Penn State, Florida, and handful of other teams can make the same argument as USC if they end their season with one loss.

Also floating around out there are the two Big East teams who will meet in tomorrow's showdown, Cincinnati and USF. If USF runs the table they'd have to have beaten a ranked FSU team, a top 10 Cincinnati team, and a potentially top 10 Miami team. Cincinnati's schedule is a little bit easier but they've already picked up a win at Rutgers, and if they pick up this win at USF, it may be enough to earn a spot in a big bowl game. One loss in those schedules for either team and I'd put the Big East winner ahead of Boise State.

Finally, there's TCU. Earlier in the season people were calling for BYU in the national title game. If TCU, who are currently undefeated go on the road and beat a ranked BYU team, and defeat a ranked Utah team later in the season, TCU will definitely leap from Boise State, and likely eliminate Boise State from any major bowl game. At this point in time the Mountain West is viewed as leaps and bounds ahead of the WAC, and an undefeated team coming out of the Mountain West will definitely get a lot of BCS consideration this year.

Overall it's Boise States fault. A good friend of mine who follows the WAC said that major conference teams are afraid of scheduling Boise because they have little to gain and everything to lose. Imagine a school like Tennessee losing to Boise, it'd be awful for their recruiting. If they beat Boise, then who cares? This theory makes perfect sense.

But still, I think there's room on Boise's schedule for a trip to Syracuse or Rutgers. Maybe a shot at Purdue, or NC State. None of these teams are ranked but they're at least respected programs. And why not take a shot at the Pac 10. Washington State ended up on SMU's schedule, who's to say you can't land Washington? A win against Washington and Boise State would likely be in the BCS Title game this year.

But they won't be. Instead, because of a poorly constructed schedule, the team needs to rely on Cincinnati, Southern Florida, and TCU all losing a game just to end up in a major bowl game. This is both the beauty and the flaw of the BCS system. Unfortunately for Boise State, even if they run the tabke, the BCS is likely to see them as at best the number 5 team in the nation.

Those uniforms are amazing though.