ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

BOISE, Idaho -- Boise State beat Fresno State 61-10 on Friday in its most decisive win of the season.

The Broncos won the WAC title, capped its second undefeated regular season in the past three seasons, and have done everything pollsters and pundits have asked of a non-BCS team.

	AP Photo/Matt Cilley
	Boise State running back Ian Johnson rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns in a 61-10 blowout over Fresno State.

And it may be all for naught.

The Broncos are ranked No. 9 in the BCS standings and might not play in a BCS bowl. Although Boise State satisfies the provisions for a berth, Utah, which is ranked No. 6 in the BCS, earns the automatic bid by virtue of a higher ranking, and the Broncos have to hope for an at-large berth in one of the four BCS bowls.

That chance doesn't appear likely with both USC and Ohio State also vying for a BCS berth. Both those teams have the luxury of history and influence in their favor.

"We're ranked No. 9, we're in the top 12 that goes to the BCS, I think they should have a spot for us, but I guess it's not going to work out that way," safety Ellis Powers said. "We also took that kind of personal because we go undefeated, we beat Oregon at Oregon. We're just going to go out and go to the best bowl game that we can. Not only for our football team, but for our school. That brings a lot of money to the program. We're just going out there trying to do it. Trying to go back and live that Fiesta Bowl dream again. But it might not happen that way."

The Broncos enjoyed a berth in the Fiesta Bowl in 2006 after capping an undefeated season. They went on to beat No. 11 Oklahoma, 43-42, in one of the greatest games in college football history.

The WAC has been the non-BCS BCS bowl representative each of the past two seasons.

But Boise State coach Chris Petersen said a BCS berth was not one the Broncos' initial goals. The work in the spring and the offseason was geared toward winning the WAC title, a feat that had eluded the Broncos last season. Prior to Hawaii winning the conference title last season, the Broncos had won five straight WAC championships. The theme was to "Take Back the WAC" and now that the Broncos have, they've won six WAC titles in the past seven seasons.

"Our deal was to finish every game and play as hard as we can and win the WAC championship," Petersen said. "We knew if we did that, good things would happen to us and they will. I think there's other teams out there that are very good teams that maybe have one loss that may not make it. It is what it is. Sometimes it doesn't shake down like you'd like it to shake down. But we're just never going to worry about those things that we don't have control over. We don't feel bad about it or anything like that."

Petersen said he's not going to campaign. He believes in the system and knows the system has worked for Boise State before.

"If I thought it would do one bit of good, I'd probably say something," Petersen said.

But Boise State isn't the only undefeated non-BCS team in this predicament. Ball State, the only non-BCS team that has to play a conference championship game, also will be left out of a BCS bowl through no fault of its own because both Boise State and Ball State are victims of their schedules.

According to the Sagarin Ratings that make up a portion of the BCS, the Mid-American Conference is the eight-best conference and the WAC is the ninth. The only FBS conferences rated below those two are Conference USA and the Sun Belt, which has just one seven-win team heading into this weekend.

The Mountain West, Utah's conference, is ranked seventh, but the Utes defeated ranked TCU and BYU teams to stay undefeated.

Boise State has been dominant in its conference this year. It's beaten WAC teams by an average of 31 points and only one WAC opponent scored more than 16 points against the Broncos this season. The Broncos win over a ranked Oregon team in Oregon still could carry weight should the Ducks beat Oregon State in the Civil War this weekend.

Boise State's hopes will probably fall to the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. The Rose Bowl will likely keep to its partnership with the Pac-10 and Big Ten, and the Orange Bowl, which picks last, will probably go with the conference champions of the ACC and the Big East.

But Petersen and his players said they're not going to fret over the outcome because it's out of their hands anyway. And no one lamented about playing in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise or the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, bowls with ties to the WAC. The only thing Boise State knows for sure is that things will get a lot clearer by the time the BCS standings are released on Sunday around 4:30 ET.

"The system is what the system is and it's taken care of us before, so we have no complaints about that," running back Ian Johnson said. "No matter what, we'll be playing in a great bowl game. No matter what, we'll know that whatever bowl game we're playing in, we deserve it. We don't want anything given to us. We just want whatever game we deserve."