Welcome to Big-Time College Football, Boise

Boise State, Utah, TCU, and BYU are the pre-eminent college football programs that have been trying for 10+ years to try and break through The BCS (which in my mind stands for The Big "Cartel" Schools) and play consistently in BCS bowl games and be a contender for the BCS National Championship.  In 2011, Utah heads west to help form the Pac-12, BYU has declared its football independence, and TCU will be awaiting its entrance into the BCS fraternity next year in 2012 - all done with the intention of leaving the dark abyss that is playing in a mid-major conference as long as the Cartel is in charge.  So where does that leave the Boise State Broncos?  The Broncos are making the lateral move to another mid-major conference (Mountain West Conference) where it will battle with TCU for one year until the Broncos will assuredly dominate another mid-major conference and yet again hold out hope every year that the Big Cartel Schools (as well as the voters that support them) will allow them to play on the biggest stage of college football.  If the MWC still doesn't work out for you, Boise State (which it won't), you can always try the Conference USA, the MAC, or the Sun Belt Conferences.  Plenty of good seats still available.

Come on down, Boise State, you're the next contestant on
the NCAA recruiting violation ruling schedule this Summer.

Boise State has elected, instead, to prove the new and soon-to-be-popular adage of the Blue Turf Broncos: "If you can't join 'em, act like 'em."  That's right, Ohio State, you have yourselves some serious competition because the Broncos have proven they belong with the Cartel by committing a series of violations that have drawn the ire of the NCAA.  And just as the Cartel does in situations like this, Boise State has released a statement to address the violations and self-impose various sanctions, which is BCS-talk for "Let us slap our own wrists and hopefully the NCAA won't do anything else to us."  Self-imposing sanctions is the off-the-field version of the Hail Mary, or in Boise State's case, the Hook-and-Ladder or the Statue of Liberty play.  The sanctions include at least three fewer preseason football practices before this year's and next year's opening games.  The school will also have three fewer scholarships to give in the next two years.  The violations range from coaches organizing low-cost summer housing and transportation for potential football players, to tennis and track and field athletes getting meals and housing in violation of NCAA rules.

Boise State football coach, Chris Petersen, is glad that he coaches Bronco
football as opposed to the women's tennis team as the NCAA makes its
way through the Bronco athletic program investigating potential violations.

In fact, when the University learned about the alleged violation in the women's tennis program the school immediately fired the head and assistant coach.  The tennis coach was accused of giving a potential player benefits before the player was enrolled, then lying to investigators about it (See, the Broncos know which sports are the revenue-generating sports...just like the Big Boys).  The NCAA can either accept the self-imposed sanctions by the school, or they can raise the consequences and hand out even larger penalties for the Broncos.  The Boise State president is hopeful that the NCAA will be lenient in its ruling given the self-imposed sanctions and the school's firing of the two tennis coaches:

"I'm hopeful the (NCAA) infractions committee will understand.  It's not as though we tolerated an individual who would commit a major violation".

So, Boise, even after all this effort to try and fit in with the Big Cartel Schools, I guess you still don't belong in the BCS as long as schools such as Ohio State continue to employ their coaches that do commit major violations (See Jim Tressel).