19 September 2008

Sports Illustrated loves BYU...

even if ESPN doesn't.

SI posted an article about the Cougars today. Here are some excerpts:

So many gaudy statistics, so little time. Undefeated BYU, which hosts Wyoming on Saturday, is 2-0 against Pac-10 teams this season, including last weekend's paradigm-changing, 59-0 drubbing of UCLA, a result so surreal and stunning that it forced us to ask: which is the team from the BCS conference, and which the mid-major from the wrong side of the tracks?

Is parity coming to the NCAA? Is the event that the BCS was created to stop on its way anyway?

What has been terminated, officially, is Rick Neuheisel's Westwood honeymoon. While there is shame in suffering so lopsided a loss to a foe from what is widely (if mistakenly) considered an inferior conference, there is less shame than you might think in getting clubbed by the BYU Cougars. This is a smart, deep, superbly coached, well-disciplined club that has won 11 games each of the past two seasons, and is now sitting on the nation's longest winning streak, at 13 games.

Just win, baby, and everything else takes care of itself. You get noticed, you get opportunities for more exposure. And you can keep building.

ESPN, on the other hand, seems to have some kind of axe to grind with the Cougars.

During the Colorado/West Virginia game last night, ESPN put up a graphic showing the number of teams in the Top 25 by conference. There was no mention the MWC in that graphic, even though the Mountain West has just as many teams as the PAC-10 in the Top 25, for example.

Good times.

4 comments:

LaPaube said...

Did LaVell Edwards really say that quote you have in your thought of the week? Sounds like "bulletin board material."

Stu said...

I only watched the first half of that game but they had a blurb about the highest stadiums. The Mountain West had 4 of the top 5.

They then spent a few minutes giving nothing but praise for the MWC talking about last weekend against the PAC 10 and how this wasn't your typical non-bcs conference.

They might not have talked about the MWC during the clip you were watching, but they weren't completely inept :) It was nice to finally here some positive comments from espn.

Brandon said...

G:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125001/index.htm

Stu:

Good to hear. I suppose it's kind of silly to say an entire organization hates a college team... but there are definitely a few employees of the network who dislike the blue and white.

Nicholas G. James said...

yeah thats stupid.... there's nothing wrong with BYU

They are just scared of us!!!