Did anyone else catch this?

[BullDoug]

I'm thinking when the regular season is over, Utah will have beaten 4-6 bowl teams - TX A&M, NM, NC, Wyoming, BYU & maybe AFA.

[Jim Johnson]

Play ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 or SEC teams on a regular basis and then I'll listen to what everyone has to say. James was right on with what he said. CSU is not a juggernaut this season. Utah and Boise State should play each other in a bowl game with the winner playing the ACC runner up in a bowl.

Sheriff... if Utah beat the likes of Duke, Wake Forest, Indiana, Illinois, Baylor, Kansas, Arizona, Washington State, Vanderbilt or Kentucky that would somehow be better than what they are doing this year?

I don't buy the hogwash that the major conferences are better top to  bottom than the mid-majors.  Vandy would still lose more than they win if they were a MAC team.  So would Baylor in the WAC.  To be sure, there are three or four teams in each major conference that are the elite.  The best of the mid-majors are as good or better than the  rest.

Are you trying to say that Clemson is a better team than Utah?  or that Northwestern is that much better than Boise State? or that Missouri is so much better than Louisville?

Not so fast my friend.  Parity is coming to college football.

[The Sheriff]

You take VaTech, UVA, FSU, and UM... they all beat Boise St and Utah. I don't think anyone in the Big East necessarily would. And we'll see that when WVU gets beat by Utah in a bowl game this year. Anyone of those four ACC teams runs Boise's and Utah's respective conferences. My top six look like this... USC, OU, Cal, Auburn, Georgia, the ACC winner (remember both UVA and VaTech have to beat UM and that is no small challenge) and Wisconsin or Texas if Texas could qualify (the worst of the bunch). You could even include FSU instead of Wisconsin... they steamrolled UVA... don't play VaTech, and lost two heartbreakers on the road by a combined total of nine points. Boise or Utah play FSU's schedule or Miami's schedule, ain't happening. The ACC is so loaded across the board besides Duke, you have a Maryland team not qualifying for a bowl, yet they beat FSU. Boise and Utah would be middle of the road in the SEC, about comparable to ASU and UCLA in the Pac-10, and third and fourth in the Big 10. In the Big 12, they would win the weak North conference, but would both finish below OU, OSU, and UT in the South. If they played a conference championship against UT or OU, they get steamrolled! Those are my thoughts and I've probably watched enough college football this year to account for most of our board (It helps working in a sports bar). Hopefully, BYU does a number on Boise to shut the state of Idaho up. Their QB is quite impressive though... giving credit where credit is due.

[mattegunz]

Utah would not be undefeated in any of the big conferences. The teams are just that much better from top to bottom than what Utah faces on a regular basis.  Utah's physical condition would be tested a lot more if they had tough opponents week in and week out.  The teams in the big conferences basically beat each other up during  the conference season.  

You also have a crowd factor.  Playing in front on 30,000 fans is a lot different then playing in front of the 60,000 fan averages in the big conferences.  Thats why even the good teams in Big Coferences  have to squeek them out on the road.    

[go_usfbulls]

I'm not so convinced about how people down play Utah.  They have pounded the 3 BCS teams they have played this year.  I guess one can say if they played 8 BCS games it would be different but NC did beat UM and Utah beat them by 30.  They also rolled Texas A&M who played OU pretty tough.  I don't think any of us know for sure what Utah would do against the big boys but I for one would like to see them in a BCS game to get an idea.  Even with there schedule going undefeated is an accomplishment worth reward.  

[Markeymark]

Utah and Boise State should play each other in a bowl game with the winner playing the ACC runner up in a bowl.

You mean, like some kind of playoff system??

I'm all for it!

[Markeymark]

Utah's physical condition would be tested a lot more if they had tough opponents week in and week out.

Sort of like FSU in the ACC, pre-Miami...

Oops, did I just say that?  :-X

[Markeymark]

Not so fast my friend.  Parity is coming to college football.

Correction - it's already here, but the big-money system is propping up certain teams/conferences.

[Jim Johnson]

You take VaTech, UVA, FSU, and UM... they all beat Boise St and Utah. I don't think anyone in the Big East necessarily would. And we'll see that when WVU gets beat by Utah in a bowl game this year. Anyone of those four ACC teams runs Boise's and Utah's respective conferences. My top six look like this... USC, OU, Cal, Auburn, Georgia, the ACC winner (remember both UVA and VaTech have to beat UM and that is no small challenge) and Wisconsin or Texas if Texas could qualify (the worst of the bunch). You could even include FSU instead of Wisconsin... they steamrolled UVA... don't play VaTech, and lost two heartbreakers on the road by a combined total of nine points. Boise or Utah play FSU's schedule or Miami's schedule, ain't happening. The ACC is so loaded across the board besides Duke, you have a Maryland team not qualifying for a bowl, yet they beat FSU. Boise and Utah would be middle of the road in the SEC, about comparable to ASU and UCLA in the Pac-10, and third and fourth in the Big 10. In the Big 12, they would win the weak North conference, but would both finish below OU, OSU, and UT in the South. If they played a conference championship against UT or OU, they get steamrolled! Those are my thoughts and I've probably watched enough college football this year to account for most of our board (It helps working in a sports bar). Hopefully, BYU does a number on Boise to shut the state of Idaho up. Their QB is quite impressive though... giving credit where credit is due.

I don't think its a guarantee that VT, UVa, FSU, or UM would necessarily beat Boise State or Utah - especially if it was a road game.  UM lost to North Carolina for God's sake.  FSU lost to a mediocre Maryland team, but beat a decent UVa team. (UVa will be the ACC champion this year.  VT is overrated and they get Miami at home).

Another example of comparing conferences would be to look at their out-of-conference records:

  Big 12 28-8

  Big Ten 24-9

  Atlantic Coast 21-8

  Southeastern 23-10

  Big East 19-11

  Pac-10 18-11

  Mountain West 16-16

  Conference USA 14-15

  WAC 14-17

  Sun Belt 11-27

  Mid-American 10-31

In year's past, the mid-majors were usually well-under .500 (see Sun Belt or MAC).  Note that the Big East is better than the Pac-10 this year, and the Mountain West is at .500.  In many cases, the majors play OOC games against mid-majors, which usually creates the disparity.  However, it looks like more mid-major teams have beaten major teams this year than in years past.

Oh, and BYU doesn't play Boise State this year - they do play Utah.  And you can expect a Utah invation of Arizona on January 1.

[bulls96go]

Play ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 or SEC teams on a regular basis and then I'll listen to what everyone has to say. James was right on with what he said. CSU is not a juggernaut this season. Utah and Boise State should play each other in a bowl game with the winner playing the ACC runner up in a bowl.

sorry that is not the system we have.

i hope in my lifetime we get a playoff system then this arsinine discussion would be mute.