BOISE, Idaho – The good news: Boise State is still undefeated and in the hunt for the Bowl Championship Series title.
The bad news: So is Texas Christian, with a recent demolishing of a Top 5 team added to its resume.
TCU, a team BSU really needs to lose or play badly, jumped BSU last week in the BCS standings and now seems poised to further the gap.
The No. 3 Horned Frogs (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West Conference) humiliated the No. 5 Utah Utes (8-1, 5-1 MWC) in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday 47-7. The game was supposed to be close, but TCU came out firing early and led 23-0 at halftime in front of a stunned crowd all dressed in black at Rice Eccles Stadium.
Is TCU really that good? Or was Utah possibly a little overrated considering it hadn’t beaten a team of substance all season? Probably a bit of both. Sorry, wins against Pittsburgh and Iowa State don’t carry much weight, Utah.
TCU’s crushing of Utah will help the Horned Frogs gain credibility in the BCS standings and in the human polls. BSU currently holds the edge in the polls, but not the computers.
An interesting twist is the loss Baylor received on Saturday at the hands of No. 17 Oklahoma State 55-28. No. 21 Baylor, up until now, had been TCU’s signature win, but now will drop out of the Top 25 with Texas A&M and No. 8 Oklahoma still on the Bears’ schedule.
TCU defeated Baylor 45-10 on Sept. 18 and had been glorified for it since Baylor’s recent rise in the polls. The shine on that win is gone, TCU.
No. 4 Boise State did what it had to do by shutting down the Hawai’i run-and-shoot offense and racking up a school record 737 total yards in route to a 42-7 drubbing of the Warriors.
It was an impressive win for the Broncos, considering Hawai’i came to Boise, Idaho on a six-game winning streak and was receiving several votes in all human polls. A lot of ESPN talking heads said this could be an upset game for the Broncos and that BSU needed to make a statement.
Statement made, ESPN. Thanks to a ferocious defensive line that put immense pressure on Hawai’i quarterback Bryant Moniz, the Broncos strolled to victory.
BSU’s quality win against No. 22 Virginia Tech looks much better now, too. VT defeated Georgia Tech 28-21 on Thursday and is on a seven-game win streak.
BSU still has No. 23 Nevada and Fresno State on its schedule. Both games will be nationally televised on ESPN and could look very nice for BSU if the Broncos were to win both games decisively.
Apparently, it’s going to take more than Boise State’s 17-10 victory against TCU in the Fiesta Bowl last season to settle this argument.
For BSU and TCU, it’s going to come down to what their opponents do. The only question is whose opponents will win more games and by how much? The joy of the computers.