With their 61-10 plastering of Fresno State on Friday night, No. 9 Boise State officially wrapped up its season unscathed. For the second time in three years, the Broncos finished the regular season undefeated, and yet the only thing they can hope for is a chance to play in a BCS bowl game.

Do they deserve more? Do they deserve to play for a national championship?

Some say they do because they were one of only three teams (Utah and Ball State being the others) to finish undefeated. But most say they don’t because the only team with a pulse on their schedule was Oregon, who the Broncos beat 37-32 in Eugene earlier this season (which is more impressive than people are letting on).

Personally, I say they do have the right to play for a national championship, just as Utah and Ball State do. It’s not fair to assume anything in college football. It’s not fair to say, “Well, if Boise State played Alabama in the national championship, they would get waxed.”

Guess what? We already played that game two years ago with Boise and they produced one of the greatest bowl games ever when they beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. We can’t assume anything in college football and that’s what makes the game so exciting.

Did Boise State play anybody outside of Oregon? No. But you can make the argument that nobody plays anybody. College football teams are lucky to get two teams worth a damn on their schedule every year. The SEC is down this year and so is the Big Ten. But just because the Big 12 is arguably the power conference this year, doesn’t mean that Oklahoma or Texas would roll over Boise in a bowl game. Granted, I’m not suggesting that Boise plays a similar schedule to any team in the Big 12 or SEC, but the point is that not a lot of teams are playing daunting schedules.

And this is why the BCS is so screwed up. It assumes things. It assumes things based on schedule, and points and everything else but what really matters – beating another opponent on the field. The only way we would know if Boise could hang with the “big boys” in college football is if they played them in a playoff.

But I guess the Broncos don’t deserve that shot. Why? Because a computer says they don’t. It’s the most ridiculous thing in all of sports next to some NFL teams not having cheerleaders.

College football fans that didn’t want to see a Big Ten team play for a nation championship can celebrate tonight as unranked Iowa upset No. 3 Penn State 24-23 with a last second field goal.

This all but guarantees that the Nittany Lions won’t play in the title game since they don’t face another ranked team the rest of the way. If Alabama and Texas Tech fall too, PSU still has a shot. But losing to LSU or Oklahoma State is certainly different than losing to an unranked Iowa team.

This was obviously a devastating loss for PSU, but many pundits saw this coming. The Big Ten is so even with talent this year that it’s not surprising that a decent Hawkeyes team could knock them off in Iowa City. The good news is that with the Lions falling, there will be less controversy than if they had gone undefeated and didn’t wind up playing in the title game. The bad news is that BCS supporters will use this game as an example to say, “See – college football does have playoffs! The regular season is the playoffs!”

But I don’t want to hear it. This was an impressive win and a great upset, but it’s still just a regular season game. If this was a playoff game, than the result still leaves me unfulfilled and I want more. I want a true playoff system.

Getting back to the result of this game, if Alabama loses to LSU (they’re tied at 21-21 as of this post) than the Texas Tech-Oklahoma State game gets even bigger than it already is. Regardless of crappy the BCS system is, this is shaping up to be a great day in college football.