Washington State.....Bowl Game?

[Eric]

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/8799/washington-state-cougars-wants-bowl-game-really

I think this team is delusional

The first commenter on ESPN said it all:

Wulff is an apocolipticly bad coach. He just turned in the 2 worst statistical seasons in WSU history, giving up over 1000 points in just 2 years. Our worst 2 year stretch before that gave up almost 700. We are BAAAAD. Not to mention that 200-09 saw our lowest output in point totals in history for any season with 11 or more games.

Bowl Game? Please. 3 wins and ONLY giving up 400 points would be drastic improvement for this group of lameducks. I'm ashamed of WSU. Bear in mind that we have given up more 50+ point losses under Wulff than in the rest of our 117 year history. 10 wins in 2001 was a FAR cry from what 10 wins in 2010 would be. We were 4-7, with a bunch of close losses. In 2009 we were 1-11, with 9 of those losses coming by 30 points or more. The problem with WSU under Wulff is that drastic improvement would be simply competing again, and losing some close games, whereas in the past, we were trying to go from losing the close ones to winning them.

I think apocolyptically bad coach sums it up pretty well. Which I'm not really sure why he's so bad because he was decent at Eastern Washington. The schedule doesn't suit up well for them either with the only game where they should be favored to win will be against Montana State (which may be a challenge). Even with more health and more experience, I think they'll go 2-10 by beating Montana State and upsetting either Arizona or Cal at home. Their schedule doesn't allow for a lot of wins.

[donovan]

Wulf has been fraught with problems at WSU and carried over from Eastern Wash. Living in Pullman, if you have ever been there would be enough to drive most anyone to delusional beliefs. Can they get a bowl game. Probably not...but teams with losing records are going to get in and frankly the bottom of the barrel in the PAC 10 is anybodies game to win. Having an even record is not out of the realm of possibility not because they are good, but because that is what happens to teams hovering in the lower half. WSU have had some good teams in the past, just in the past.

[Vileborg]

Since the expansion of the bowls, I don't think just making a bowl is an achievement. It's a stepping stone for a program in trouble but to me it's not an achievement and if I was an AD or an Alumni association I would demand making a bowl as a baseline performance. If you can't make six wins either your schedule is too tough for your program or your coach just isn't getting the job done.

There's only one conference where I could see not having six wins and thats the SEC.

If the major BCS conferences expand to 16 I think that will open the door for most of the division to control their destiny.

96 teams will control their chances. (16x6 BCS Conferences) The remaining twenty teams can either move down or form a lesser conference with a chance to rotate into a BCS conference.

I imagine each conference would have either an east and west or a north and south. You could then add that the bottom team in say the north or south divisions of the conference could then be vulnerable to be replaced by a good independent. Leave the clause in the BCS for an at-large team finishing in the top of the BCS standings and call it a day. It gives Boise St., TCU, and 80% of college football a chance to prove their worth on the field while leaving an avenue for a cinderella story to have a shot at making the BCS. With BCS berth playoffs we'll know the people in the BCS have played good teams to get there.

You could even add a section to the BCS Bowl Selection show where the conference runner-ups from the six major conferences are waiting to find out who they play. You could draw tokens, so every year any conference runner up could play any other conference runner up depending on the tokens.

[Cane from the Bend]

The only problem with that scenario, is that conference championship games come down to east vs. west, or north vs. south.

And far too often one conference division sits head & shoulders above the other. When you have a southern division champ 12-0 , the northern division champ 6-6 with 4 conference losses pairing up for the conference title, somethings off.

Especially when there is two other teams from the southern division who are respectively 11-1 & 10-2.

Just saying...

[Vileborg]

I see what your saying, you could have a 7-4 Florida St. team make the CCG. Oh wait, they won that game and went on to a BCS birth.

Virginia Tech was 10-1 going into the CCG and en route to a nice Bowl Game only to have it stolen. Some losses just always seem to sting.

Their only loss that year prior to the CCG:

Miami