Labor Day means many different things to many people.  It is the end of the summer, and the day to celebrate the long-lasting working traditions of America.  It is a throwback to the Industrial Revolution, which was the turning point of our country.  The work ethic of America, symbolized on this September 4th, is the lifeline of the American Dream:  If you work hard and don’t give up, you can succeed in this country.  It is ironic that Boise State is playing on Labor Day.  Boise is celebrated as the college football equivalent of the American Dream, however what Boise stands for runs counter to the iconic message of the American Spirit.

The Underdog and America

As one of my film class instructors once told me, American cinema differs from European and Asian cinema in that we expect story over all other traits of the median.  America loves the grandiose plot with well-defined heroes, villains, and a solid/happy resolution.  As a society we love to see the journey, especially one where our character undergoes a metaphorical life cycle of ignorant childhood, failure-ridden adolescence, and a successful adulthood.  No story hits home with us like the underdog story, and in no realm is this story told more than sports.

Think about the sports movies that last in the American psyche, and you will notice this trend over and over again.  Hoosiers, Major League, Rudy, The Mighty Ducks, Miracle, The Bad News Bears, Rocky, and countless others follow the same plot: a player/team that is not given a shot must out-work, out-think, and push through all adversity in order to succeed against its perceived undefeatable counterpart.  This aura of invincibility casts a dark shadow over the opponent of our hero, and as a result of this we are led to dislike and perhaps even hate this “villain.”

Often the villain is given inherent advantages to separate itself from our hero.  Typically our hero will have neither the talent of the counterpart (If our hero is a team, then this is meant as a group, the hero team may have the most talented player of both teams, but overall the team will fall short) nor the money/technology of the villain.  What our hero has, as noted above, is perseverance, hard work, and a trick or two up its sleeve.

The reason we love the Underdog Story, is that we are taught that America was this underdog.  We were a colony of farmers under the terror of the grandest empire since Rome, and with no formal government we defeated Britain to gain our independence.  Then after we won our independence, we defeated them again a few decades later.  Within 100 years, we had expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  Within another 50 or so we saved our former oppressors from invasion, and in another 50 years America was the world’s lone superpower.  If there was ever a rags to riches story, it is America.

The Underdog Broncos

College Football is a tiered sports landscape unlike any other sport in America.  It starts at the top, with Division 1 being broken into 1A and 1AA.  The monetary difference between these two classifications is immense.  Then the divide in 1A is deeper, with the six BCS conferences separated from the other 10 non-BCS conferences.  The monetary difference between these divisions is also immense.  And within the BCS conferences, the SEC and Big10 generate much more money than the Pac10 and Big East.

Boise State is not a BCS school, and Boise toiled in relative obscurity until one fateful night in early 2007.  We knew them for their blue turf and didn’t even notice when they went undefeated during the 2004 regular season.  We had even forgotten about their destruction in Athens in 2005.  What we knew in the Fiesta Bowl was that the traditional power Oklahoma was going to play the upstart Boise State Broncos in Tempe.

Oklahoma won a title in 2000, played for another in 2003 and 2004 (while being hailed as possibly the best team ever in 2003 before the Big12 Title game).  Oklahoma is a top-10 historical program with annual top-10 recruiting class and revenue generation.  Oklahoma had dominated its biggest rival during the Stoops era.  The recruiting budget and coaching salaries of OU likely surpass the entire athletic budget of the entire Boise State Athletic budget.  The talent difference was immense.   While the Sooners were not an unstoppable juggernaut in 2006, compared to the history of Boise, they were Goliath.  They were the evil, entrenched and successful villain.

What happened on this fateful night tickled every underdog bone in a large number of viewers.  While Boise started off the game dominating Oklahoma, the depth and talent difference overcame this initial onslaught.  Oklahoma scored 17 unanswered points to tie the game late in the 4th quarter.  Then, in the most heinous act of treachery to the Underdog Drama, Oklahoma intercepted a Boise pass and returned it for a touchdown with a little more than a minute left to take the lead.

Then “magic” happened.  The Broncos scored with a jaw-dropping 35 yard touchdown on a trick play (a hook and lateral) to tie the game.  Had Boise ended up losing in overtime, they would have been the heroes from the movie Mystery, Alaska.  The type of losers who have the villain-victors salute them after the resolution is certain.  It appeared this would be the case, with Adrian Peterson scoring a touchdown on the first play in overtime. The drama, however, was not over.  Boise scored a touchdown on its next possession, and in the most dramatic fashion, the Broncos won by attempting a two-point conversion instead of the almost certain PAT.  Another trick play (the Statue of Liberty), and another image burned in the American psyche.

The dramatic cycle was now complete.  The out-matched Underdog defeated the more talented and well-financed favorite.  The Underdog used its perseverance and hard work to push, push, push until it overcame all obstacles.  A few trick plays were the sprinkles on the proverbial donut, slashing the tension of long odds and superior play by the evil favorite-villain.

The opponent and the memorable plays are why we remember this game.  Many people forget that Utah, not Boise, was the first “BCS Buster” program.  Utah made a BCS bowl after 2004, and beat Big East champ Pitt in impressive fashion before hoisting its bowl trophy.  Pitt is a school that has had success over its history, however it is not in the same class of Oklahoma.  Pitt is not a national program with consistent performance over decades, and Pitt certainly had not had the same success as OU in the years leading up to their respective showdowns.  Pitt also had twice the losses leading up to their BCS bowls.

Also the play on the field was anti-climactic.  Utah destroyed Pitt, and there was no drama involved during the game itself.  There was a lot of apathy built up due to the lack of prestige of the “villain,” and any miniscule interest was killed with the dominating performance on the field.  There was no drama or tension, and due to this there was no signature play planted in our memories.  We didn’t care about the ultimate result, it was about the “Baysplosion” moments and triggering the deep desires and want of our hearts.  The Fiesta Bowl after 2006 gave us these moments…the Fiesta Bowl after 2004 did not.

The Underdog Becomes the Cinderella

The game was only the beginning of the story, however.  Bronco star Ian Johnson left his celebrating teammates to propose to his cheerleader-girlfriend on national television.  She said yes, and now the hearts of the American mediocrity were hooked.  America loved Boise State.

The Cinderella story is similar to the Underdog story, with a few minor differences.  The Cinderella is an unfairly oppressed hero with a heart of gold who, like the Underdog, faces this enemy with a triumphant reward at the end.  While the Underdog must face a superior foe, the Cinderella is a victim of circumstance, relegated to second-class status before being able to show its true virtue.

The party had been crashed.  The ‘dog was now the number one story in America that morning.  When Ian Johnson proposed to his girlfriend, it was as if he found out that the glass slipper fit.  When Boise woke up the next morning, however, they found that they did not fit within the “system.”  The National Championship game was to be played a few days later, between heavy favorite Ohio State and eventual champion Florida (who had lost, which Boise did not do).  Boise was not invited to this party.

Instead of the enemy being in front of Boise, the enemy was now surrounding Boise, infecting every aspect of its being. “The System” was keeping Boise down, starting with the Fiesta Bowl after the 2006 season.  In 2007 the non-BCS team du jour, Hawaii, lost in horrible fashion (to former Boise killer Georgia, in the Sugar Bowl).  Due to this horrible showing (by a team who beat Boise during the year), the “System” talk died down a bit.

In 2008, Boise went undefeated again, and did not even make a BCS bowl (Utah, again, made history before Boise by becoming the first non-BCS team to win a second BCS bowl, defeating its own goliath in Alabama).  2008 had its own controversy, involving Oklahoma and Texas and which Goliath would face Florida in the title game.  Even after Utah won, there were very few arguments for the non-BCS, and the real arguments were with Texas versus Florida (even with Utah being undefeated while both BCS programs having one loss).  Utah was not Boise, and America simply did not care as much.

The Cinderella becomes Goliath

Bois enters the 2010 season ranked in the preseason top 10, after a 2009 season in which Boise defeated non-BCS TCU in the Fiesta Bowl.  The publicity, the love, and the hype have culminated in Boise now being regarded as a Goliath team in 2010.  The problem is that how Boise got here goes against the very American ideals which made Boise an Underdog in the first place.

Here is a list of the ranked teams BSU played in each regular season from 2004 onward that I could find, with each ranking being the final AP ranking:

  • 2004: None

  • 2005: #10 UGA

  • 2006: #24 Oregon State

  • 2007: #19 Hawaii

  • 2008: #10 Oregon

  • 2009: #11 Oregon

Boise averages less than one, top-25 team per year in this timeframe.  Instead of compensating for its horrible WAC conference schedule, Boise has made a mockery of out of conference scheduling. Here is a list of the 1AA teams BSU played in each regular season from 2004 onward, with the same rules as above (teams I could find, and AP ranking):

  • 2004: None

  • 2005: Portland State

  • 2006: Sacramento State

  • 2007: Weber State

  • 2008: Idaho State

  • 2009: UC-Davis

So Boise has averaged the same number of ranked teams on its regular season schedule as 1AA teams.  While playing a 1AA team made Auburn a national pariah during the 2004 BCS title discussion, the fact that Boise has scheduled 1AA teams is overlooked (when their out of conference scheduling should be analyzed heavily).

The Bronco response was the classic, “nobody wants to schedule us” comments.  While Fresno State was the non-BCS team with publicity (after its own Underdog game against FSU where it almost won) before BSU, Fresno built its national reputation on the old “we’ll play anyone, anywhere, anytime” mantra of Florida State.   Boise flips its middle finger at gaining respect by playing hard opponents and proving themselves on the field of play.

Instead of showing the nation every year how it wants to beat the best to prove it is the best, Boise avoids competition.  Boise went as far as to hire a public relations firm to spin the fact that it doesn’t play even a mediocre schedule.  It’s no shocker that not long after the PR firm was hired, we were given stories of how BCS schools refuse to schedule BSU fairly.  Even though some BCS schools get paid for one-and-done bounty games, Boise feels like it is above these games, and demands equal treatment (Equal to whom? We do not know).  Reports surfaced during the 2010 season that Boise even turned down a 2:1 offer from Nebraska.

Boise uses every possible angle to dodge the attacks on its schedule, and it continues to follow the same pattern: play one BCS team early, hopefully win, and then play nobody during the year.  Then, rest up over the weeks between the regular season and bowl season, and hopefully win (which they haven’t done a good job of lately).   Whatever you do, if you make a BCS bowl, be sure to use trick plays to win a close battle.

Boise State moved well beyond its label of the Underdog.  Boise State has not become the villain. But Boise has become this role in the most heinous way possible: by thumbing its nose at the very ideals which create the Underdog.  Avoid difficulty.  Dominate your weaker foes.   Do almost anything possible to avoid future adversity.  Take the easiest route possible to achieve your goals.  These are the ideals of the Boise State Broncos.  This is why America should hate, not love this program.  This is the reason why the champion of college football is chosen with logic and objectivity and not emotion.

Luckily, even if Boise State beats Virginia Tech and rolls through its intentionally weak competition, the system in place will punish Boise for its evil schemes.  Going into the final week of the season last year, Boise was ranked 6th in the computer polls.  To simplify the process, the BCS uses the average poll ranking of the Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll, and the computers (averaged into a single ranking).  The computer polls are not biased by preseason rankings and weigh objective data to rank teams.

Let’s just assume that Virginia Tech will end up ranked about where Oregon did last year, and the relative strength of schedule ends up relatively the same.  We’ll grant Boise the benefit of the doubt and give them a full spot in the computer rankings and rank them 5th (again, this is not the exact BCS, but for this article and the point it will do).  Boise can make the title game in 2010 if it can get to number one in both human polls, assuming it is 5th in the computer rankings. Assuming this computer ranking, it is possible that Boise could make the title game if only ranked at the top of one of the polls.  If Boise is ranked two in both polls, they’ll be ranked 3rd in the BCS likely.  If Virginia Tech tanks, or the WAC is particularly bad, that computer ranking is unlikely. If two BCS schools go with 0 or 1 loss, then it is unlikely that Boise could get to that ranking of two in the BCS.

So please, celebrate Labor Day and its virtues. Celebrate your day off.  Enjoy the football game tonight (whatever the result).  Whatever you do, let’s make a concerted effort not to celebrate Boise State football.  Boise does things the wrong way in order to skate the system and benefit from that system without earning the benefits.  Oh yeah, and celebrate the great system that crowns the champion of college football, which is insulating us from rewarding the evil that is Boise State.