We need to win by how much?

by Jeremy Mauss on Sep 20, 2008 7:43 AM PDT

This is the question if BYU, TCU, or Utah want to keep moving up the polls in the coming weeks. The conference has solid teams, but the voters in the all important coaches (SID, secretary, or closest relative) poll may not recognize the quality of opponents in the Mountain West.

A small reason that BYU shot up the polls last week was that they beat UCLA, who people who vote know the Bruin brand. The 59-0 score definitely helped as well, but a 31-14 win over Wyoming does not sound as impressive as a larger margin of victory.

Part of the reason that Utah kept in the starters late into their 58-10 victory over Utah State, was to keep margin of victory impressive. A late seven or ten point spurt by the opposing team against some backups can make a game look closer then it really is.

The rest of the way these three MWC teams need to win convincingly so the voters can take notice of a lopsided score, and that is the down side of playing in this league, because most do not watch the games or do not know how good teams are if they are not ranked.

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I think BYU has made their case easily. If they run the table, there won’t be any question whether or not they make it into the big dance. Utah has looked a little bit more shaky though.

As for TCU, I’m not really giving them much of a shot at crashing the BCS. I think they might even get in at 11-1 with an ultra-competitive loss to Oklahoma, but I doubt it.

And, on an off-note, what is the problem with New Mexico? I can’t believe that they didn’t at least split with TCU and A&M and I can’t believe how badly they lost to Tulsa. Tulsa could very well be a BCS buster.

by Eric on Sep 21, 2008 12:03 PM PDT reply actions

I think you are unfortunately right. These 3 teams do have to win impressively early in the season to help their rankings. It’s a flawed system and they need to fix it.

by Ken on Sep 22, 2008 4:38 PM PDT reply actions