On Vikings, Vandals, Broncos and that dastardly BCS

Happy New Year sports fans, and here’s hoping 2012 treats you well. Since Mark Nelke is on vacation, I'm pinch hitting in his usual Sunday column space.

Remember when pre-BCS college football and New Year’s Day were synonymous, with an annual spate of top notch bowl games on tap for football fans? One could lounge all day on a couch, glued to a television while eating massive amounts of food and recovering from the previous night’s festivities.

Not this year. While there are a couple of meaningful NFL games  on the final Sunday of the regular season, not one college game will be played today, tradition be damned.

To make up for it, I’ve decided to wax opinionated about the brand of football where players don’t get paid to play (we hope) — high school and college.

Is the 2011 edition of the Coeur d'Alene Vikings football team the best in the history of the state of Idaho?

With all due respect to apples and oranges everywhere, I’m going to answer yes, freely admitting there is no definitive way to ever prove such a grandiose claim.

But consider this: the Vikings outscored their opponents a whopping 626-182; they hammered perennial power Skyview, which eventually lost in the Washington 4A state title game, 52-14 in a statement win; and they were never seriously tested en route to an undefeated season and second straight state championship, despite a heavy duty schedule.

But all of that pales in comparison to this: The Vikings were ranked No. 16 in the final USA Today Super 25 high school football rankings.

Yes, a team from the Gem State actually cracked a national list rife with powers from football hotbeds like Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

I’ve no idea what criteria is used to determine these rankings. Who knows how the Vikings (12-0) might fare against No. 15 Plant High School (14-1) from Tampa, or No. 17 Olive Branch High School (15-0) from Mississippi, the two teams sandwiched around the Vikings.

The mere fact that question was even asked speaks volumes about the Vikings’ season for the ages.

Let’s hope the Vandals’ signing of Coeur d’Alene quarterback Chad Chalich and receiver Deon Watson is merely the first step in reviving a somewhat dormant pipeline of in-state talent.

I grew up in Boise back when the Vandals were loaded with starters and impact players from Idaho, while the Broncos opted to beat the bushes of California for most of their players. Perhaps coincidentally, the Vandals were the far superior team back then. In fact, from 1982 to 1998, the Vandals went 15-2 against their in-state rivals.

Then BSU head coach Dirk Koetter (who played at Pocatello High School and coached at Highland) came along and renewed an emphasis on recruiting in his home state. The Broncos have been on a slow, but steady climb to national prominence ever since, getting huge contributions along the way from home grown players.

Meanwhile the Vandals, who back in the day featured Idaho natives like Jerry Kramer (Sandpoint), Kenny Hobart (Kamiah), John Friesz (Coeur d’Alene), Wayne Walker (Boise), Ray McDonald (Caldwell), Yo Murphy (Idaho Falls), and most recently, Jake Scott (Lewiston), strayed further and further from its in-state roots.

The 2011 Vandals had just one in-state starter on either side of the ball — sophomore tight end Daniel Micheletti, who started the final four games.

Count me among those happy to see the Chalich and Watson signing, and here’s hoping they’re part of a program turnaround. Show me a team with homegrown impact players and I’ll show you an energized local fan base.

I can’t decide if BCS stands for Boise Continually Shafted, or Broncos Can’t Succeed, or Biased Calculating System or even Banished Chumps Scorned. Whatever the acronym, the BCS flat out hates the Broncos, and with good reason. Every time the pesky power from Boise smacks down a more storied team, it makes their system look that much more foolish.

So their solution is to simply not give BSU the chance. First, it was pitting them against fellow non-BCS power TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, essentially saving face as it was a good bet the two mid-major programs would have each won a BCS bowl if split up.

This year they simply didn’t allow the Broncos to crash the party, a decision decried by football fans across the nation. Far less worthy teams like West Virginia (three losses), Clemson (three losses) and Virginia Tech (two losses, including a 38-10 loss to Clemson in their most recent game), are playing in the big money BCS games instead.

BSU got a cold slap in the face, was sent to face a mediocre and uninspired Arizona State team in the Las Vegas Bowl and promptly blowing the Sun Devils out.

How intriguing would a Boise State vs. Michigan Sugar Bowl matchup have been? Something to capture the fans’ imaginations. Instead, we get Michigan vs. Virginia Tech, the same Hokies team the Broncos beat last year.

Count me as sportswriter No. 1,496,241 to suggest that a potentially thrilling college football playoff needs to replace  the flawed, bogus, rigged and flat out unfair BCS system. And count me as sportswriter No. 1,496,241 whose imploring will no doubt fall on deaf ears.

Maybe someday.

Enjoy 2012.

Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at “eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com.”