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This was going to be a longer post until I accidentally deleted it. The short version of the first half of that post- several teams blew out lesser competition, many more got blown out, but credit to Miami, Utah State, and Arkansas State for putting up a fight on the way down. We’ll cover all the [...] The weekend is light for the WAC, with three teams playing last night, one off, and the last playing on Monday. Pity our friends in New Mexico who have to sit this week out. 7:00 PM- Utah State at #8 Oklahoma: Fitting, perhaps, that we move from Sun Belt blowouts on to this game. I think Utah State should be an improved team this year, but kicking it off at Oklahoma is not a great way to get the ball rolling. Line: Oklahoma by 33. Last year Oklahoma posted wins of 64, 45, and 55 points when the opportunities presented themselves, so 33 is certainly within range. Let’s say 48-7. Today is the day. All the talk of recruiting, GPA, realignment, coaching changes, Senate hearings, lawsuits, transfers, arrests and everything else goes out the window. At least until Tuesday because there’s no games Tuesday. Football is finally ready to kick off. Here on the Fringe, we attempt to preview any given weeknight game as best we can, and we will have our Weeknight Football preview a little later today. But for now, the first of our weekly features including the BCS Buster Watch and my non-BCS Top 25. So here we go. BCS Buster WatchCurrently on the watch: Everybody. All 54 teams are presently undefeated. So instead, here are 10 teams besides Boise State, TCU, and Utah that could make a run at the dream season, or at least stay undefeated long enough to garner a little attention. These teams are picked because they could (not will) make it to about 4-0 and do it with a worthwhile resume. In no particular order, except for alphabetical by the order their conference pages are sitting on my desk: For all we know, this could be the last Western Athletic Conference preview ever. Probably not, but they’re on very shaky ground right now. As it stands, they plan to keep Fresno State and Nevada around through the 2011 season, meaning that next year they should operate as an 8 team conference with Boise’s departure to the Mountain West happening next summer. Once Fresno & Nevada are gone, the WAC is down to six. Louisiana Tech is supposedly investigating/evaluating/begging a spot in C-USA or the Sun Belt, which would put them a lot closer to their competition, Utah State apparently wants into the MWC, and Hawaii has rumbled about going independent. The transition time from FCS up to FBS is at least two years, so even if they protect the six they have and add two or three from below, 2012 could be a limbo year. The NCAA may grant a waiver and allow them to compete with just six during this process, but there’s a lot still up in the air. BYU’s decision on their independence is due tomorrow, which could have a lot to do with the WAC’s future stability. But enough about all that, we have 2010 to think about. Obviously storyline 1A is Boise State. #5 in the Coaches Poll (the one that matters for the BCS), one of the dominant national preseason stories has been whether they can, or should, get a spot in the title game if they run the table. While the question of ‘should’ can be endlessly debated, our coverage at the site will mostly focus on the ‘can,’ assuming they beat Virginia Tech. But not now, this is a conference preview. If we acknowledge that Boise State should be favored to win the WAC comfortably, the real race is for second in the league. Nevada lines up as the favorite for that role, as well as the WAC team with the best chance to disrupt Boise’s unbeaten streak. Fresno State and Idaho should figure into the race for second as well. Read PostFootball on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order. A mid-year five game win streak kept Fresno State alive in 2009 after a loaded early-season schedule, facing Wisconsin, Boise State, and Big East champ Cincinnati in consecutive weeks. They finished the season 8-4 before Wyoming won the New Mexico Bowl in double overtime, in one of the most compelling bowls of the season. For 2010, the Bulldogs will have to replace star running back Ryan Matthews, who passed up his senior season and went 12th in the NFL Draft. Otherwise, Fresno brings back 8 starters on each side of the ball and can look to start improving on last year right away. As usual, it won’t be an easy road, with three BCS teams and of course Boise State on the slate. While most of the drama has subsided in the WAC, there’s still that chance of an upset of Boise State is spending too much time worrying about bowl selections, and one game that nobody is going to watch will have huge ramifications on many teams nationwide. The WAC’s big showdown came on Friday night, but Saturday wasn’t without it’s surprises too. The league now just needs one more upset to get another team into the bowl picture, while the middle three or four teams in the league are proving to be more even than once thought. Read PostOverall, 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. Read Post With fairly light schedules consisting of mostly conference games, I’m going to consolidate the wrapups for a couple weeks at least. The main reason is that starting tomorrow, I’m launching Mid-Season Report Cards for every single non-BCS conference teams, which should be fun. We also have a very busy week of night games, so there’s a lot to look forward to all week long. Last week was a pretty good week for the WAC out of conference, going 2-0 against the MAC, getting a MWC win, and not losing to any 1-AA teams. Fresno fell short again, making 3 weeks in a row that they could have realistically beaten a top 30 team. This week is amazingly quiet in the conference, with only 5 games on the slate. Read Post |
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