We heard it in 2004 and now Boise State is hearing it in 2007. They, like the Utes, are the Cinderella story of the college football season. Hearing this makes me want to slam my head against a wall, because it just isn't true.
The 2007 Fiesta Bowl was epic, unlike the 2005 Fiesta Bowl between Utah and Pittsburgh, which was fairly anticlimactic. In that game Utah rolled and last night Boise State barely got by in overtime on the famed statue of liberty play which resulted in a two point conversion to win the game. Yet even going toe-to-toe with the apparant national power Oklahoma Sooners, the Broncos will be known as the little team that could. As if they're less important and less impressive than any of the Big Boys. Like Utah in '04, they'll always be remembered as a Cinderella story, even when in reality such statements endorse the idea that Boise State (and Utah in '04) were underdogs heading into the game. And while technically the Broncos were not favored, their beating of Oklahoma proves they're just as equal.
I never understood this whole attitude of putting BCS teams up on a higher pedestal than non-BCS programs. Granted many BCS opponents soundly defeat non-BCS teams, but I have no doubt that most years the best of the non-BCS can almost always compete with the best of the BCS. Boise State in '06, TCU in '05 and Utah in '04 would definitely put a scare into the national champions, if not somehow pull out a victory.
In some ways, Boise State has proven more than Utah ever did in 2004 because the Utes weren't given the proper opponent worthy of their 11-0 season, one where they dominated every foe. Pittsburgh was no Oklahoma and it showed, as Utah blew them out. Boise State on the other hand played a worthy opponent and proved to the world that the cream of the crop in the BCS were not immortal against non-BCS teams.
This victory by Boise State was impressive, even more so than Utah's over Pitt in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Impressive because Oklahoma is a storied football power and a venerable opponent for Boise State. They proved, as TCU did with their victory over Oklahoma in Norman in '05, that the discrepancy between the non-BCS and BCS is minimal, if not non-existent. They're no Cinderella story and last night's win was indisputably not an upset.