Karl Benson and Craig Thompson shared a cab Thursday. They shared a cellphone, too, when they talked to me about one of the more fascinating college football stories brewing in the West.
I found all this interesting because the commissioners of the two Colorado-based conferences have reason not to share much more than a glance, let alone transportation and communication. It was 10 years ago when eight teams splintered off Benson’s Englewood-based Western Athletic Conference and formed the Mountain West Conference in Colorado Springs, which Thompson now governs.
Benson said he’s not bitter. The old WAC guard is long gone, and he has cobbled back together a pretty good college conference, kind of a poor man’s version of what Mike Tranghese did with the Big East.
But you have to think Benson would love one more piece of that luscious BCS bowl pie, just as his Hawaii Warriors grabbed last season and his Boise State Broncos did the year before that. He has two teams with shots again this year — Boise State, ranked 20th in the all-important coaches poll, and 24th-ranked Fresno State.
The only problem is the conference down the road has three teams vying for a BCS spot — 11th-ranked Brigham Young, No. 17 Utah and No. 23 Texas Christian. Forget the BYU- Utah rivalry for a moment. How about Mountain West-WAC?
“There’s a lot of rivalry still with a number of our people,” said Thompson, who joined Benson in Chicago for the Collegiate Commissioners Association meetings. “We have the same markets in Nevada, California and Utah. There are a lot of similarities. It’s only been 10 years. A lot of those people have histories and rivalries with WAC schools longer than with the Mountain West.”
If the season ended today and the coaches poll was the BCS standings, BYU would automatically qualify for one of the four big-money BCS bowls with a ranking in the top 12. However, don’t think Boise State or Fresno State can’t make it that far.
Two years ago at this time, Boise State was ranked only 22nd. It ran the table and stunned Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Boise State this year has already knocked off a ranked Oregon team on the road.
“I think it’s a matter of winning games, and history shows if you win games you move up in the polls,” Benson said. “The key is to win games and let strength of schedule take care of itself.”
Would the BCS ever let a one-loss team from a non-BCS conference into its bowl party? Fresno State, which would be 3-0 and would have destroyed Wisconsin’s national title hopes if the Bulldogs’ kicker hadn’t had a bad night, has already won big at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights aren’t what they used to be. Neither is UCLA. But if Fresno State goes to the Rose Bowl on Saturday and destroys the Bruins, it will have two routs over BCS schools on the road.
Benson’s problem is voters have long memories. They remember how unbeaten Hawaii came to the Sugar Bowl last season and got flattened by Georgia, 41-10.
“Georgia could’ve beaten a lot of teams by 30 points that night,” Benson said. “Georgia had a chip on their shoulder.”
Thompson’s league is earning major street cred for building a 7-2 record against BCS conferences this fall. Would any team east of Los Angeles want to play Brigham Young on a neutral field right now? How about Utah in Salt Lake City?
“We’re off to a good start,” Thompson said. “But I’m trying to temper people. One month does not a decade make.”
The problem he has in getting a team into a BCS bowl game is the balance of his conference, particularly with the improvement of UNLV and Colorado State. BYU, TCU and Utah could beat one another right out of the top 16, the minimum requirement for BCS bowl consideration.
TCU hosts BYU and visits Utah, but if the two Utah schools win out, picture this scenario: Nov. 22 in Salt Lake City, BYU vs. Utah, both in the top 12, facing off for the one spot open for non-BCS conferences.
“It’d be huge,” Thompson said. “That rivalry doesn’t need a lot of fuel.”
And if both have a loss, imagine six days later when possibly unbeaten Boise State hosts a one-loss Fresno State team, with that winner getting the bid.
So what if it’s too early to speculate? Imagine the Polygamy Porter flying in Salt Lake on Nov. 22. Imagine the convoy from Fresno to Boise the next week. Now picture Colorado’s two conferences grabbing a piece of the national spotlight the last week in November.
Benson and Thompson would be sharing a lot more than a cab ride.
ACC has a few feel-good stories
The Atlantic Coast Conference has taken a lot of heat this year for playing like a basketball league. However, two nice little stories are brewing under the national radar, and they’ll collide Saturday in Miami.
Butch Davis, who led Miami (Fla.) to four Big East championships or co-championships before his ill-fated stint in the NFL, takes his upstart North Carolina Tar Heels against his old Hurricanes. Both teams are 2-1 and are among the most improved teams in the country, although Davis arrives without quarterback T.J. Yates, who’s out six weeks with an ankle injury.
Miami blew out Texas A&M on the road 41-23 and held Florida to only 123 yards in the first half in a 26-3 loss. North Carolina made Rutgers look like the Rutgers of old in a 44-12 whitewash in New Jersey.
The biggest difference for Miami’s Randy Shannon, whose highly trumpeted ascension to head coach last year ended at 5-7, is at quarterback. Redshirt freshman Robert Marve is 26-of-40 passing for 281 yards with one interception and two touchdowns. He hasn’t made anyone forget Gino Torretta, but he’s starting to make people forget Kyle Wright.
“I’m thrilled we’re going on the right track now, but we’ve still got a long ways to go,” Shannon told . “The bigger thing is just don’t let guys slack off. We can’t look back and just say, ‘We’re good.’ We’re OK. We’ve got a lot of things we need to improve on offensively and defensively and special teams.”
John Henderson, The Denver Post
Games of the week
Can Bama turn tide?
Top 25: No. 8 Alabama at No. 3 Georgia — Any of you still doubting Nick Saban’s Midas touch? His Crimson Tide is 4-0 and has blown out Clemson and Arkansas. Georgia, also 4-0, must stop tailback Glen Coffee, right, or its SEC and national title hopes could go to the dogs.
Big 12: Virginia Tech at Nebraska — First BCS-conference opponent (ACC) for Cornhuskers and a chance to show the nation that the corner has been turned under first-year coach Bo Pelini. A high-profile road win by Virginia Tech could make people forget opening-game loss to East Carolina.
Mountain West: No. 24 Texas Christian at No. 2 Oklahoma — Frogs won in Norman in ’05, but all parties quick to say Oklahoma was unsettled then at QB. TCU leads the nation in total defense. Oklahoma is tops in scoring offense. Sooners won’t overlook TCU this time.
Colorado Connections
Welch gets his kicks
After two weeks to think about his game-winning kick, Fort Collins High grad Phil Welch, below, returns to the field this weekend when No. 9 Wisconsin plays Saturday at Michigan. The redshirt freshman’s 23-yarder in the third quarter against Fresno State on Sept. 13 proved to be the winner in the Badgers’ 13-10 victory right before the bye week. He had a career-long 45-yarder against Marshall and is 4-of-5 this season. He also handles kickoff duties.
Thomas Bauer, Montana: After stops at Northern Colorado and Saddleback College in California, the Niwot High graduate is trying to crack the roster at linebacker for the Grizzlies.
