Louisiana Tech's visit to Boise State is major college football on a random October Tuesday, and for that we must give thanks. For the inevitable, relentless focus on the Broncos' place in the BCS championship, though – and especially for tonight's role in that debate as a coveted "national showcase" – maybe we shouldn't be so grateful. How does Boise stack up against other elite contenders? How would Boise fare in [insert conference]? What about Boise's schedule? You know the drill, and ESPN2 is prepared to deliver it tonight on an hourly basis, at minimum.
It's not like Boise State needs the exposure here: It's No. 2 in all three mainstream human polls and third in the BCS. It's already won much more high-profile games against ranked teams on broadcast television, on Labor Day and in Saturday primetime. And given that it comes in as an overwhelming, 38-point favorite and has still never lost a WAC game on the blue turf, it's probably not worth speculating on the prospects of a straight-up Louisiana Tech win. Short of a miracle, then, that leaves us with three possible paths for "Broncos on Parade" narrative to follow:
a) Boise routs the Bulldogs in a merciless bloodbath that covers the huge spread by halftime, instantly converting legions of suddenly awed skeptics;
b) Boise scrapes by with a relatively humble escape on the order of last year's 45-35 win in Ruston, forcing Bronco backers to soberly reevaluate their token darkhorse's dominance even within the WAC; or
c) Boise wins comfortably and convincingly but faces a few moments of adversity, fails to leave the Bulldogs strewn across the turf in unrecognizable pieces, takes its foot off the gas with the game in hand late and fails to move the zeitgeist in any way whatsoever in either direction.
Well, they have to ask, I guess, but the reality of the situation pretty much ensures c) – that is, your regularly scheduled gridlock. The time for impressing has passed: Even before the season, something between a comfortable, convincing win and an all-out, scorched-earth assault against Louisiana Tech was already taken as a given on both sides of the debate. An impressive blowout will be status quo. The divide is over whether that says anything about the Broncos' qualities as an elite contender. And the only way tonight's minor spotlight can possibly close that divide or change the nature of that debate is by revealing an unexpected struggle against a team that lost by 32 at Texas A&M.
At this point, Boise isn't going to win any new converts by crushing a team even its critics fully expect it to crush. The only drama is whether it can keep the cross fire roiling at full steam.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
John van den Berk Marnicq Bervoets Fritz Betzlbacher Dave Bickers Anthony Boissiere
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