COLUMN: Mountain Worst Conference

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All college football rankings are a sham.

Most rankings don’t matter, and the ones that matter are more of a justification of thought than an actual ranking of teams. Utah State being ranked 14th in the past two AP polls is a nice footnote for the media guide and gives some nice publicity, but it holds no weight for what the Aggies do this season or to which bowl game they may go. The College Football Playoff rankings really only matters for its top 10 teams. Beyond that is only fodder for watercooler discussions and angry Twitter feuds.

All that is not to say that I’m not upset with the Playoff committee leaving Utah State out of their first two rankings this season. Despite shellacking nearly everyone who dares share a football field with them, the Aggies are still considered lesser of a team than that of 6-3 Iowa State team who struggled with Akron and lost to TCU. Aggie nation has every right to hold anger.

All I’m saying is that anger would be better served elsewhere.

I was at Utah State in 2012, the last season in which Utah State football was in a comparable situation as to now. My first year at USU, it was a goal to be on the front row as much as possible. That was a special season, and I still remember rushing the field after the Aggies clinched the WAC championship to close out the regular season. For their dominant season, USU was rewarded with… a trip to Boise and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. USU finished 22nd in that season’s final BCS rankings and had to watch Northern Illinois get thoroughly outclassed by Florida State in the Orange Bowl. The Aggies had to settle for a 41-15 dismantling of Toledo.

A strikingly similar scenario is playing out this season. Even if the Aggies close out the regular season with a win over Boise State and a MW title, barring an upset, USU will likely be watching UCF snatch the G5 bid to an NY6 bowl. Is there an argument that Utah State might be more deserving? Perhaps, though it’s hard to form that argument against a team currently on a 22-game winning streak. The fact of the matter is that even if the Aggies were included in the final spots of the Playoff rankings, USU’s destiny would still fall in the hands of another team.

Most of Aggie Nation has realized this chain of events already happening, and has focused their anger at the Playoff Committee for seemingly slighting Utah State by not including them in the rankings. Again, there is truth to that gripe, but that misses on the larger problem here.

Hypothetically, if UCF were to stumble versus Cincinnati, USF, or in the AAC championship game, the worst possible bowl game they might go to is probably something like the Birmingham Bowl versus an SEC team or the Military Bowl versus some team from the ACC. The Birmingham Bowl pays out $1.65 million while the Military Bowl pays out over $2 million each year. That’s a far cry from the $4 million UCF would miss out on from the Fiesta Bowl, but relative to other bowl games, it’s a nice payout and a solid matchup.

For Utah State, however, the safety net after an NY6 game is much more bleak. If the Aggies manage to defeat Boise State and then Fresno State in a likely MW title matchup, USU would earn a nice paycheck of $2.76 million versus a Pac 12 team in the Las Vegas Bowl. After that, the Aggies’ bowl options become a Wheel of Fortune of suck. Another trip to the Potato Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl, the Arizona Bowl, or the New Mexico Bowl. Only the Hawaii and New Mexico Bowl pay out at least $1 million, and all four matchups are against teams from either the Sun Belt, MAC, or Conference USA. Even a conditional spot to the Cheez-It Bowl, should the Big 12 or Pac 12 fail to fill the spot, isn’t that much more tantalizing, paying out only $1.03 million to take on the seventh or eighth-best Pac 12 team. After the Vegas Bowl, the MW’s remaining bowl tie-ins rank in the bottom 12 for payouts, and none offer a marquee matchup.

In an era where bowl season is expanding at a torrid pace, the MW has proven themselves incompetent. The conference fields four teams widely regarded as among the 50 best in the nation, and at least three of them will have to live with postseason opportunities outdone by most of Conference USA.

We’re used to the Mountain West being among the worst-run conferences in FBS, if not the worst. This is the same conference whose television deals relegate a large chunk of their games to Facebook. Those who were irked by having to watch Utah State versus Hawaii on a tiny phone screen are well aware of the MW’s ineptitude. Yet anger towards the conference’s handling of events over the past decade pales in comparison to the anger spewed at the Playoff Committee.

Again, Utah State fans have reason to hold ill will toward the Committee and their rankings, but shouldn’t they also feel ill will towards the body that will likely be responsible for relegating USU to Albuquerque for the postseason? The conference that has only one bowl tie-in with any of the AAC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, or SEC?  The conference that thought San Jose State was a quality replacement after the conference lost Utah, TCU, and BYU? The conference who led the charge in busting the BCS but failed miserably in capitalizing on it?

The best-case scenario for the MW is one where Utah State, Fresno State, or Boise State grabs the G5 bid to an NY6 game. Even in that pipe dream, though, one of the other two teams will end up twiddling their thumbs in the postseason having to play some team from the Sun Belt. As it is, probably two of the teams can expect the same fate. That is neither the fault of any of those teams nor the rankings.

It’s entirely the fault of the Mountain West Conference.