1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Boise State
6. Utah
7. Penn State
8. USC
9. Ball State
10. Texas Tech
11. Oklahoma State
12. Georgia
13. Missouri
14. Ohio State
15. Cincinnati
16. TCU
17. Oregon State
18. Boston College
19. BYU
20. Oregon
21. West Virginia
22. Mississippi
23. Georgia Tech
24. Michigan State
25. Florida State
Also considered: Who really cares at this point?
The answer is… YES!! Boise State is now a Top 5 team in my view.. They’re not like Hawaii of last year, no way. Hawaii needed every last gasp to beat Washington last year, who was the worst team in the PAC-10.. Boise State has defeated Oregon this year, that’s better than anything Hawaii did last year..
So, you may question.. Why Boise State ahead of Utah? It’s all in the results.. Sure, Utah has faced a few tougher in-conference tests than Boise State has had to, but, 2 of Utah’s closest 4 games came against teams with losing records. There’s really not much difference between the WAC & the Mountain West except at the top.. The Mountain West has Utah, BYU & TCU while the WAC has Boise State & well, that’s it. Although, don’t let Fresno State fool you, they’re much better than their record would suggest.
Alot of people get caught up in Utah’s conference schedule compared to the WAC & think, oh my, that means Utah is better than Boise State.. But, do they really take the time to look at the close calls Utah has had against losing teams? Some will ofcourse say that Utah had Michigan beat badly & then Michigan rallied back late to make it seem close, yet, they’re quick to point out now that Boise State had a close one with Nevada.. There’s a couple of problems with that.. The first is that Nevada isn’t a losing team, they’re bowl eligible. The second is that Boise State led that game 41-24 with less than 5 minutes to go in the game.. So, if you wanna talk about the Nevada game for Boise State.. I’m more than happy to talk about the Michigan game & yes.. If Toledo can beat Michigan, so can Nevada.
The bottom line is that just because Boise State plays in the WAC where you aren’t forced to play TCU & BYU, doesn’t mean they’re not as good as Utah.. A team’s quality really isn’t measured by it’s schedule, it’s measured by it’s performance on the field against the schedule that they have.. Boise State performs better than Utah, in my eyes. Utah scores points for being battle tested. So, it’s close between the two, I give the edge to Boise..
