Week 10 Wrapup: WAC

Overall, it was a good, but quiet, weekend for the WAC.  Boise survived a mild upset scare Friday night, and while they didn’t get a lot of style points, right now catching TCU isn’t going to hinge on whether they win by 10 or 20 over Louisiana Tech.  Fresno beat up on Idaho pretty badly, but the Vandals got the ship righted at least a little in the second half to make it look better.  With most schools down to just a few games, everyone’s trying to shine up their resume for bowl season, just in case there aren’t enough bids to go around.

WAC Standings

Nevada still holds the lead, and will until they lose or until their game with Boise at the end of the year.  The top four are all bowl eligible now.

This Week’s Games

Boise State 45, Louisiana Tech 35- The Bulldogs hung around and hung around, but never quite got into winning range at the end of the game.  BSU really is getting everyone’s best game this year, especially on these TV games, but they’ve held on every week so far.  I saw a handful of pundits suggest that the Broncos are free and clear, but I suggest that Idaho and Nevada will have something to say on that topic.

Hawaii 49, Utah State 36- Utah State struck first, but Hawaii scored quickly to respond and never trailed again.  Hawaii is still not completely eliminated from bowl contention, but they’ll have to win out to get there, including games with Navy and Wisconsin.

Fresno State 31, Idaho 21- This game probably wasn’t as close as the final score suggested- Fresno State went up 24-0 at halftime, and Idaho was still 16 points behind with just a minute to go.  Idaho now has to figure something out on defense, since they’re heading for the blue turf next week.

Nevada 62, San Jose State 7- Nevada ran for 517 yards.  San Jose State rushed for 30.  Ouch.  SJSU hasn’t been quite this bad most of the year, but they haven’t managed to finish a game either.  It appears that they didn’t start last night’s.

We’re bearing down on the biggest weekend of the year in WAC play this week- Fresno State is at Nevada, and Idaho is at Boise State.  If Nevada survives, they have a clear path to their season-ender against Boise State on Thanksgiving Friday.

Week 10 WAC Power Rankings

1. Boise State
2. Nevada
3. Fresno State
4. Idaho
5. Louisiana Tech
6. Hawaii
7. Utah State
8. New Mexico State
9. San Jose State

Championship/Bowl Outlook

Nevada and Boise State still clearly control their own title destinies.  If Nevada survives Fresno State, and Boise gets past Idaho and Utah State, then they’ll play for all the marbles.  Now, if it happens that Nevada loses to Fresno State but beats Boise State, then we could find a 3 way tie at 7-1, and I haven’t found the WAC Football Tiebreaker yet.  If it’s BCS standing, I would expect Boise to win that by a large margin.

As for the bowls, things aren’t so clear for the WAC right now.  If Boise State does get picked for a BCS bowl, they’re golden- the Humanitarian, Hawaii, and New Mexico bowls are all locked to the WAC, so everybody has a spot (Current prediction under that scenario- Idaho to Humanitarian, Nevada to Hawaii, and Fresno State to New Mexico).

However, the Pac-10 now has 6 bowl eligible teams, which means their place in the Poinsettia bowl is gone for the WAC.  If the BCS passes on Boise, then one of the four WAC bowl teams is going to have to hope for an at-large bid to another bowl.  I still think that will play out like I predicted last week- Idaho to Hawaii, Nevada to New Mexico, and Fresno State out to the open market.  Even with Idaho’s remarkable season, Fresno is a more recognizable name and will have a better time getting a bigger bowl on their own.