Utah, quit your whining: join a better conference

As you’ve undoubtedly heard by know, the Utah Utes are furious they didn’t get a shot at the national championship and suddenly think they have been ripped off. Get real.

Utah has no right to think they earned a national title shot. They’ve played in a nothing conference. It’s not their fault. There’s nothing they can do about it. It’s not fair. But that’s the way it is.

You know what’s worse? They know it. Why was there none of this whining before the Sugar Bowl? They didn’t have a signature win like Oklahoma over Texas Tech, Florida over Alabama or even Texas over Oklahoma. Utah’s big win was over TCU who they beat by 3 in a pretty lucky 4^th quarter. Anyone impressed?

Don’t take me wrong. Utah deserves to be in the national championship now that they have a signature win. Problem is, this win came a few weeks too late. USC has the same argument now that they mauled Penn State. But this is the BCS. You have to win your big bad conference to get a title shot: you have to beat someone good. It’s been that way since the beginning, so quit acting surprised.

So it’s hopeless for Utah, right? Wrong. But they need some help.

One possible solution would be for the NCAA to remove the Big 10’s automatic bid and hand it to the Mountain West. The Big 10 has been absolutely awful in bowl games over the last couple of years and the Mountain West had a pretty good year. This scenario is pretty unlikely, especially considering the chances of the Big 10 recovering from their demise is far more likely than the Mountain West sustaining their high level of play (though, with a BCS bid more prospects would be interested in the Mountain West).

This next situation is far more likely, beneficial and less of a gamble for the NCAA. But first, let’s take a look back at the last few seasons.

In 2003 the ACC made a revolutionary move in adding Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech to create a 12-team conference with a conference title game. They did this in an attempt to make a more legitimate football conference and to have a true champion to represent them in the Orange bowl.

In 2005, Utah burst on the scene with a Fiesta bowl victory. Boise State followed that up with a miraculous win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta bowl. Two years later, (get the pattern here?) Utah has become the BCS buster with its Sugar bowl win over Alabama while Boise State was close to receiving an at-large bid.

After these victories, Boise and Utah have proven their ability to compete with the best. Therefore, the Pac-10 needs to extend an official invitation to Boise State and Utah to join their conference. They can become the Pac-12, divide the conference into two divisions and have a conference championship. This is a win-win situation for all involved. USC can have a conference championship opponent to recover from losses like Oregon State. Utah and Boise State will be in a legitimate conference to give them a shot at national titles, increase the interest in their school from prospects and get more of their games on TV. The Pac-12 would then have a greater chance of getting to the title game which would bring in more money to their conference. If USC had beaten an undefeated Utah squad, they would have had a great shot at the title game. If Utah had beaten USC, they would definitely be in the title game. Not to mention the added revenue for having a televised championship game.

This is a move that needs to be done now that Boise and Utah have proven they can hang with the top dogs. The Pac-10 could be a more legitimate conference and hopefully eliminate the monopoly USC has over the region. It would also take the tiebreakers out of play with a true champion coming out of the conference.

Or we could just leave Utah obsessing over what could have been.