Nearing the top 25: Boise State

Boise State is #27 in the lastest AP polls, 2nd place in the others receiving votes category. They are #26 in the USA Today poll. They're 6-1 overall and undefeated in the WAC (along with Hawaii and Fresno State). Sure, they've been good in recent years, but they have done nothing this year to garner such recognition.

Boise State lost at Washington 24-10. While the Huskies are a Pac-10 team, they aren't sniffing the top 25 after losing to Ohio State and four Pac-10 games. Along with their conference wins, which included squeaking one out at home on the smurf turf against Nevada, the Boise State Broncos also beat Weber State, Wyoming and Southern Miss in their non-conference play.

Weber State resides near the bottom of the Big Sky Conference, with their only two wins coming against Big Sky bottom feeders Sacremento State and Northern Colorado. Wyoming and Southern Miss are run of the mill Mountain West and Conference USA teams. There is nothing on the Boise State resume that says they could compete consistently with top 25 caliber competition.

And, the problem for Boise State is that the other teams in the WAC do nothing to refute that line of thinking. Hawaii beat Charleston Southern, Northern Colorado and UNLV in their non-conference games thus far. They still have a late-season date with Washington. Fresno State made a late run at Texas A&M after being man-handled for most of the game before losing in OT, got run out of Eugene by the Oregon Ducks and posted a win against Sacremento State. So, while the top of the WAC can take apart the bottom of the Big Sky, I don't find that all that exciting.

San Jose State (4th in the WAC) lost badly at Arizona State, at Kansas State and at Stanford. They did beat Great West juggernaut UC-Davis ... did you catch the sarcasm. New Mexico State got crushed by Auburn. And, while Nevada beat UNLV, they got blasted by Nebraska 52-10 and lost to Northwestern.

There is no justification for ranking Boise State in the top 30. There isn't really any justification for having Hawaii ranked as high as they are, even if they are undefeated. If a conference doesn't have a single win against a team in the top 30, how do you justify having a team in the top 20 and two more knocking on the door of the top 25? It's ridiculous.