« Heisman Watch 2010 - Week 5, or Big Week Blinders | Main | Big East Coast BiACC - Big East Preview, Week 6 »

On The Field: Utah Already Acting Like a Big Boy

October 8, 2010  |  By Benjamin Miraski

It doesn’t take long for a team to start believing that they are one of the big boys.

Utah did Thursday just what any other automatic qualifier would do if they had the chance: drop Boise State from its schedule.

The new member of the Pac-10,…er 12, signed an agreement with newly independent BYU to play a two-game series beginning next year, but needed to make room for the games on its schedule.

So off go the Broncos.

That leaves Boise State scrambling to fill their final open game, a spot that will now likely have to be taken by an FCS school, costing the now perennial contender both strength of schedule points and some dough (although Utah will pay a fee for dumping the Azure Spuds).

This has to be disappointing for Boise State.

First they moved to the Mountain West to upgrade their schedule, but then they lose Utah and BYU, two of the three teams — TCU being the other — that would have helped boost those precious SOS points. Then they were passed over and not even mentioned as the Pac-10 tried to turn into a bloated 16-team leauge. And now they can’t even keep Utah on the non-conference slate.

So instead of everyone lauding Boise for playing both an SEC team (Mississippi) and a Pac-10 team, all focus will turn to their other out of conference choices: Wyoming, Toledo and Tulsa. Not exactly a murderer’s row, and definitely a notch below whenever that last spot is filled in.

All of which means another season of everyone dismissing the Broncos for their lack of opponents.

Although you have to wonder how that Utah game would have been portrayed had it been played.

Would the Utes immediately be recognized as an equal in the Pac-10? Or would they get the “lipstick on a pig” approach, that just because they are in the Pac-10 doesn’t mean they are better; that they are still a Mountain West team at heart and therefore worth less?

At the same time, give credit to BYU, who now have Oregon State and Utah from the Pac-10 and Texas from the Big XII (10?) on the schedule for next season. This will go a long way to offset the five WAC schools that are on the schedule for the next two years (although they at least got Hawaii).

And they have upcoming games against West Virginia and Notre Dame in the works.

Even though the results on the field haven’t been great in the final year before the grand independence experiment, they sure know how to book a game.

Posted October 8, 2010 8:00 AM