Rather than single out Nebraska, who Boise may well wind up playing anyway.. Let's take a look at Boise's open date offer to come play anywhere and anyone on this date.. I believe someone asked, and I am sure more than a few of you thought: "Who even has that date open?" I'll do the work for you...as time permits... First up, the ACC.. The first list is the teams who have opponents and who those opponents are.. the second is the teams who have that date open. Sept. 3, 2011 Clemson: Troy BC: Northwestern Florida State:Air Force North Carolina: James Madison Maryland: Towson VTech: App State (They do play Boise in 2010 though) OPEN Georgia Tech Miami (FL) NC State Virginia Wake Forest
Big 12 Baylor: TCU Colorado: Hawaii Iowa State: Utah Kansas State: Oregon Texas: Rice Texas A&M: SMU OPEN Kansas Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma Oklahoma State Texas Tech
Big East Cincinnati: Albany Louisville: Georgia Pitt: Buffalo West Virginia: Marshall OPEN UCONN Rutgers Syracuse South Florida
Big 10 Indiana: Ball State Iowa: Tennessee Tech Michigan State: Youngstown State Minnesota: USC Northwestern: BC Ohio State: Akron Penn State: Indiana State Purdue: SE Missouri State Wisconsin: UNLV OPEN Illinois Michigan
Independents Navy: Deleware OPEN Notre Dame ** I have seen schedules listing Purdue on this date, but as mentioned above, Purdue is showing on some schedules a game against someone else. According to this though: http://www.purduesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/071400aah.html It appears the listing on NDN might not be right. Army
Pac 10 Arizona: Northern Arizona Arizona State: Utah State Oregon: Kansas State Stanford: San Jose State UCLA: Houston USC: Minnesota Washington: Eastern Washington OPEN California Oregon State (they play Boise in 2010) Washington State
SEC Arkansas: Missouri State Florida: Florida Atlantic Georgia: Louisville Miss State: Memphis Ole Miss: Southern Illinois South Carolina: East Carolina Tennessee: North Texas Vandy: Elon OPEN Alabama Auburn Kentucky (they pay hoops recruits more than it would cost to get Boise) LSU
And Terry, in the other section you mentioned 'how many has he actually tried to contact' etc.. I'd suggest reading this article... even ESPN is behind this effort... They can't make it happen. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-boise110709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
I'd love to play them, but we need the game against SMU for Dallas recruiting. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it... 8)
Now in defense of some of those teams (Alabama for example) plays Penn State like 2 weeks afterwards so there are some of the list that DO have viable opponents lined up. Still, there are a great many teams on that list in the 'open' category who do not... If UGa can buy out their return trip to Boise a few years back without so much as a squeak ever being made, why can't some of these other teams shuffle the deck the way they did? Oh well..
Oh hell Oregon State and Va. Tech are playing them next year, so they do have some good non-conf games There's still time to get a good game for that date. Maybe they need to not only offer to play for free but to pay somebody to come to their place!
that's just it Terry... As the article mentioned, and I did in the other section, money won't be the issue... It's the fact that 'the big boys' won't return their phone call. This is Boise knocking on the bully's front door and the bully won't come to the door. One thing that has helped the BCS in its short history is that the media (sans the AP) has clearly been on their side. They just ignore reality to paint a TV picture that they want you to see. If ESPN is trying to make this happen (and they are) and no one will come out to play... how long until the coverage flips and Boise St starts getting a pass for playing 'no one' because the big boys won't come out and play. That day isn't as far away as you might think. BTW-If the Big12 offered Boise and TCU spots, would you be happy about it?
Interesting bit from Watson today on ESPN http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/tag/_/name/boise-state-broncos
Our Lord and Savior these days ($$$$$$$$$) may be dictating why no offers have been accepted, rumor has it that BSU's AD wants A-Roidian money (didn't I already post this? :? ) for his Bronco's to show up. Gotta pour some more concrete someway right?
Corey, Not only is Alabama playing PSU in the second game of the season but they have played top 10 out of conference teams like Clemson, and Va Tech in the last few years as well. Let Boise play into that group. Not just the last few years but a sustained level of performance. 10, 20, 30 years gets them the same level of respect. According to Sagarin, Alabama finished with the 2nd toughest schedule last year. Maybe so, maybe not but tough nonetheless. Before we add another team that is supposedly that good, either let them earn it or let them pay for it.
It sounds to me like Boise State is getting peole to play them. Va Tech and a couple of others were listed. Also it seems to me going with a bird in the had is worth two in the bush theory that signing a 3 game series with Nebraska starting in 2015 makes sense. I hope ESPN finds an opponent, I would like to see a game with Boise and a major opponent next year early. I like watching them. Terry's comment on the other topic about life not always being fair is true and to me that's all the more reason for Boise to accept the Nebraska offer.
Corey, that's a lot of research you did on all the schedules, where do you find that? Is in on Sportsline or ESPN? Also I saw several references as to who Boise State plays the next few years, jus who do they play out of conference over the next several years. One of the articles, I think linked here, had conference expansion, with the Big 10 picking off Missouri and the Pac 10 expanding. When he made predictions of teams going to different conferences he had TCU to the Big 12 and Boise State and Utah to the Pac 10. Do you think those are feasible?
Hell if any team needs the green it's Boise. They didn't even have enough green for their field. Have you seen it?