Check out more info on the Playoff Pac that’s behind the ad.

Sure, at the end of the day, the possibility of an automatic is probably better than not getting to a BCS game. However, something about the idea just doesn’t feel quite right. Even if a game between TCU and Boise State before a BCS game would be a lot of fun to watch this year.

Our oldest son who lives in Hong Kong with his family, sent me this:

The young men in our branch have a “code” to share the score of BYU football games during church (because of the time zone difference, most of the games end while we are at church). BYU’s score is always the chapter and their opponent’s score is the verse.

In credit to BYU’s game today, the young men read Alma 14:13. Here it is:

“Be it according to the will of the Lord. But behold our work is not finished. Therefore they burn us not.”

GO BYU!

Well, this year it looks like I’m going to have to put Family First. Yes, that might shock some, but family is more important than football. Let me just give you an idea of how important family is to me by recounting my travel plans to be able to see my family.

9/5/09 – Trip to Arlington, TX to see my brother and tour a new building their in Arlington

9/19/09 – Trip to Provo, UT to celebrate my father’s 60th birthday (he’s a BYU grad too)

10/10/09 – Date night with my wife in Las Vegas and possibly a double date with my brother and sister-in-law if they happen to come for a visit

10/17/09 – Visit to my older sister who just moved back to San Diego, CA

11/14/09 – Trip to Albuquerque, NM to visit my new twin nieces

11/28/09 – Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City with the family

That’s a lot of traveling for “Family.” I hope they realize that in my life it’s all about Family First!! Now I just better check how that coincides with BYU’s football schedule.

In essence his article mentioned the Utah Attorney General’s anti-trust lawsuit against the BCS that should take place sometime this summer. To fully make sense of what I am saying you will need to read Jeremy’s article as well as the comments. Hopefully it will make some sense either way.

Do I think the BCS is unfair, absolutely.
Do I think this lawsuit will result in a playoff, or even a better system, no.

But, this is the best laid argument I have seen. Every other attempt to take down the BCS has been nothing more than a cryfest about how our team got left out and we should have gotten in, blah blah blah. The huge factor that continues to grow is that the Major BCS schools, meaning the ones that consistently have a title shot like USC, are saying we need a playoff.

What that says to me is that this is no longer simply a question of who should play in a BCS bowl, but that it has sincerely become a question of crowning a TRUE national champion. That is the argument that has needed to be raised to create change.

Let’s face it, the big conferences and networks are going to get their money one way or another. What I have really started to take issue with is declaring a national champion when there is a legitimate case for multiple other teams. If any major sport were to simply pick two teams based on polls and they played one game to determine the Super Bowl Champion, or the winner of the Stanley Cup, then there would be outrage. Why is college football the only exception to the rule in the world?

Of all the sporting events in the world, from pee wee sports, to the high school, to professional sports, and even to the Olympics, there is a playoff in place. Sure there is debate over what teams should make it, but now that I think about it, when was the last time you heard a country cry about not making it into the World Cup, or even the playoffs in major US sports? There is a system in place that makes sense and ultimately crowns a true champion.

While there will always be people making excuses about why their team didn’t win or why their rival did. However, there is no legitimate argument to take away their title.

Now the idea of sending the 11 conference champions plus 5 at-large bids to a playoff is completely stupid to me. There is no even remotely decent argument that the conference champion of C-USA, WAC, Ivy League, MAC, or even in some years the MWC champions have any place playing for a national champion. Last year evidenced that even the BCS conferences don’t always warrant a BCS bid. There is no reason to make it even that complicated.

I have written this before, but it could be very simple. You take the top 8, or 16 though I prefer 8, and put them against each other with their ranks as seeds. Add the Cotton and Holiday bowls, or others if you prefer, to the original 4 BCS bowls. They rotate yearly through first round games and the seminfinal games. Then you pick an entirely separate place, picked just like the Super Bowl and most leauges’ all-star games for the National Championship.

This creates even more money to spread around, and the major conferences would still get their cut because their teams would be the ones making it regularly. At the same time, smaller conferences would have just as much chance. There would be no argument that smaller teams don’t deserve it, because they would HAVE to schedule better teams to get ranked in the top 8. Going undefeated would not be enough for a non-BCS school.

I really don’t understand why they make it so complicated. Everyone in the world knows it is about money and nothing else. Don’t give me the time argument, because the national championship is already more than a week later than it used to be.

This may not be the best answer, but it seems like a legitimate one for me.

The football game was even worse to watch. Not only because I will be getting teased at work until football season next year, but because I simply hate to lose in anything, especially a game that was very winnable.

Give Arizona all the credit in the world, they screwed up less than BYU and had a couple more big plays than BYU. Congrats on ending your 10 year bowl drought with a very nice win against a good team that played like crap.

The easiest excuse to make is that they hadn’t played in a month so they were rusty, which absolutely showed for most of the first half, but they started to get it going right before halftime and at the beginning of the second half. Unfortunately that is right about where it ended.

Personally, I have to say the difference maker was the lack of Dennis Pitta. He adds another dimension to this team that makes them almost unguardable. Without him, they are just like anyone else. What I don’t understand is why they waited until late in the fourth quarter to involve him in the offense. I realize he was limping, but it isn’t like his knee got better all of a sudden in the fourth quarter. Had they shown more confidence in him early on, the outcome would have been different.

Arizona’s corners played some nice defense, though there should have been a pass interference call on that bomb to Collie down the middle. They were fast, and always in good position, or at least recovered fast enough to still make the play. Near the end, their line, and linebackers showed up to seal the deal.

If it weren’t for TCU, BYU may have gone undefeated. What I mean by that is that BYU’s three losses all came because of the same reason: the offense got flustered, and the defense couldn’t make a stop. Where TCU comes into it, is that they exposed the defense’s susceptibility to underneath routes. I can’t believe BYU never adjusted to cover those routes. They also had a couple of huge blown coverages resulting in touchdowns.

Seeing as how all we can do is look to the future at this point, I am hoping some of JC transfers will sure up the defensive secondary. I also hope the offensive line will recover with the loss of four good seniors. My greatest fear at this point is that Austin Collie will go pro. The reason that is a fear to me, is that we have no one else to take his place!

Michael Reed is a senior, so he is gone. I think Chambers will be an excellent receiver, but he is not yet a go to receiver. I really have no idea who we would have as a deep threat. We should still have Pitta underneath, and Unga out of the backfield, but it will take a lot to replace Collie if he decides to leave.

My hope is that these two losses leave a bitter taste in his mouth that he wants to get out. They will also have a better shot to run the table next year with utah, TCU, and Air Force at home. Not to mention non-conference games at Arizona St and Florida St. at home. It should be a much better chance to bust the BCS next year than this year.

Only time will tell what happens, and now we have to sit around and wait until next august to see how it all plays out. I really hate the offseason.

BYU does seem to be finding a little bit of rhythm, unfortunately it is half way through the game already. I think the biggest thing killing BYU right now is the absence of Dennis Pitta. I know he is on the field at times, but he is certainly not himself. BYU’s offense just isn’t the same without him.

On defense, BYU HAS to find some way to get some pressure on Tuitama. I would say give Arizona some credit, but BYU is only rushing three or four every down. There have been one or two downs where they rushed five or six, and what was the result, incomplete passes. He is not a good enough quarterback to handle a lot of pressure, but for whatever reason BYU can’t create any.

On offense, they simply need to keep doing what they did to finish the half, minus three penalties on third down. The announcers keep talking about how much bigger and stronger BYU is, so they need to use that to there advantage and keep smashing Harvey down there throats. They were starting to get worn down, and it will only get worse.

I will give Arizona some credit, and a congratulations on their first bowl in ten years, but not too much credit. What they have going for them is an experienced quarterback, and a vastly improved running game, but that is about it.

Unfortunately, they have the next to impossible task of bottling up Harvey Unga, Austin Collie, and Dennis Pitta. The only team to successfully do that, when they were all healthy, was TCU, and we all know how that ended up. Even Utah didn’t do that, they were just the beneficiary of a lot of turnovers. Arizona should be scared of how bad Max Hall will want to make up for those mistakes this Saturday.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but BYU needs to get pressure on the quarterback to be successful on defense. That was the key to their success last year, and what has been lacking this year. Give all the credit in the world to Jan Jorgensen for having a decent season being double and triple teamed. If there was even one other player that could command some attention, he would have been an all-american this year.

As I said before, Arizona should be scared about Max Hall’s desire for redemption on Saturday, but at the same time so should BYU. He will be the difference maker in this game. If he comes out fired up having learned from his many mistakes at Utah, he will shred Arizona apart like he was doing early in the season. On the other hand if he comes out with only the emotion, he will start forcing things again and this game could get out of hand the other way.

Knowing how Bronco has been in the past after a disheartening loss I would look for BYU to come out full of emotion just like the UCLA game, and if they get a few fortunate bounces and calls, this game could end up much the same way. More realistically I would say BYU will simply wear them out with a heavy dose of Harvey Unga (what they should have done at Utah) and then pull away with a couple of late scores to finish it off. Final score: BYU 42-Arizona 21.

Looking back now I am so grateful he is the coach. I am sure Kyle Whittingham would have done a decent job too, but I would much rather have Bronco. I came across a quote in another article that gave another prime example of why I love Bronco.

The hope by Mendenhall is the Cougars meet Arizona with a heightened sense of awareness and resolve.

“If our team chooses to take that approach, and if they don’t, many times it could get worse before it gets better. That doesn’t happen by chance but by choice. And so if we don’t play cleaner and at a higher level — not chance but choice — where they haven’t been quite humbled to the depths where it needed to be to really make changes necessary where it needed to be.”

Then Arizona will be another humbling loss.

“I can point it out. I can impose demand,” said Mendenhall. “But until it comes from personal recognition, choice will determine the outcome. We’ll know at the end of the game if they’ve taken that challenge or not, not to absolve myself, I’m responsible for all of it.

“But when we truly choose to learn the lessons, the program will get better.”

I love this personal accountability that he demands of his players. He takes the ultimate responsibility as the head coach, which is right, but he also puts the players on the spot because it is their effort and execution that lead to the final result.

I know he refuses to say how long he will stay, except that it won’t be as long as Lavell, but let us hope it will be a long long time.

I realize that the game will sell out thanks to BYU, but don’t they want a compelling game at least? Apparently not as they have let Cal, the number 4 Pac-10 team get away because another bowl wanted a local team. So we get stuck with a crap team instead of a decent matchup.

How can the MWC allow their teams to get screwed out of decent competition? The Bowl is only concerend about money, but the conference should be concerned about showcasing their teams, and playing a team that is barely bowl eligible, even if they are from a BCS conference, does nothing for gaining credibilty.

We had a good year for the most part, and it will likely end with a win over a third Pac-10 team, but what good is it to bust your butts all year to end up with little to no national respect. If the Mountain West wants to be taken more seriously they need to get in some better bowl contracts where the competition will be better, and the teams will have something more to play for. Until that happens, they will continue to be looked down upon, and be forced to play inferior opponents.