Many of the BCS teams these days have excuse after excuse as to why they shouldn't play top level Non AQ FBS teams. "We don't gain anything by beating them." or "Why give them a shot to make a name off of us?". Then you have what I like to call the middle child excuses. Top teams won't play the better Non AQ schools because either they claim they need to schedule top level BCS opponents to ensure their SOS is strong enough to make it to the BCSNC or (and this one applies primarily to SEC teams) "we play such a difficult conference schedule we need to schedule some easy games to get some relief in our out of conference match-ups".
Listen, I get it, you have to impress the voters and the magical equations of the BCS rankings. For whatever reason, playing a 2 loss Non AQ team that wins their conference is equivalent in the eyes of some voters to beating a middle of the road BCS team. If you get the same respect in the eyes of the delusional voters why would you risk playing a very dangerous team versus a mediocre team.
There are some teams, however who aren't afraid to play the best teams out of conference regardless of what conference they may be from. They don't seem to buy into the "we are better than them based on 3 little letters" mentality. Without them, and others of the same mind, there would be very little, if anything, left to unify the FBS. They are the ones preventing an FBS-A and an FBS-B.
The best example of such a team for the 2010 season is Virginia Tech. Maybe they are one of the few BCS teams who still remember what it was like to be one of the "little guys". VT played as an independent from 1965 to 1990. Perhaps they remember scrapping and fighting for every little bit of respect they could get. They remember being ranked 20th (in a 20 team poll at the time) in 1986 despite having a better record than 10 teams ahead of them, and beating one of those teams head to head. They know what it is like to be excluded from the good ole boy's club.
They also know what can happen for a program when they are finally given a shot. In 1991 they joined one of the "Big Boy" Conferences in the Big East. There was no BCS at the time but when it came the Big East would be one of the chosen few. Perhaps it is not lost on Virginia Tech that they were only ranked 4 times in the first 54 years of the AP polls existence before joining the Big East and then suddenly, since 2 years after joining, have been ranked in the final poll 15 out of 17 years.
Maybe all of this is why Virginia Tech saw fit to schedule 3 defending conference champions from Non AQ conferences for 2010. The Hokies (or Fighting Gobblers for you old schoolers) open the season at a neutral site against reigning WAC Champion and Fiesta Bowl winner, Boise State. Everyone who knows anything about college football is aware of the Broncos by now. They have been to and won 2 BCS bowls in the past 4 years. They are the team every Non AQ school aspires to copy. They have finished 6 of the last 8 seasons ranked in the top 15 of at least one of the two major polls. Still there seems to be a stigma about playing them. No matter how good they have been they still aren't a card carrying member of the BCS club. Beat them and there are still many that will discard it as a victory over a second class citizen of the FBS. You may not earn the respect you would in a victory over a BCS team half as good. Lose to them and somehow you have brought shame to all of your BCS brethren. The Hokies don't care though, they are a BCS team living by the Non BCS creed of "anyone, anywhere".
On the third Saturday of the 2010 college football season Virginia Tech will face off against the defending 2 time C-USA champions in East Carolina. While ECU doesn't have the same national reputation or BCS appearances that Boise State does, they are well known as "giant killers". The Pirates have beaten 14 BCS opponents over the past 10 years. In 2008 ECU beat the Hokies, ranked #16, in the opening weekend of the season and #8 West Virginia the following week. Virginia Tech and ECU have played 14 times over the past 22 years with the Hokies leading the series 9-5 over that span (VT won the only other game of the series in 1956). This will be the 4th year in a row the two teams will play and only the 2nd time out of the 4 the game will be played in Blacksburg, VA. So not only do the Hokies play the Non AQ schools of the more competitive variety, but they play them on the road.
The 3rd quality Non AQ team VT will play in 2010 is Central Michigan (Oct. 9), the reigning MAC champions who have won 3 of the last 4 conference titles. This will be the first match-up between VT and CMU, who finished the 2009 season ranked 23rd in the AP Poll and 24th in the Coaches Poll. Maybe someone needs to tell VT that they are a BCS team now. They aren't following the company protocol for OOC scheduling that goes: BCS, BCS, Non AQ bottom dweller, FCS.
Other examples of VT's Non AQ friendly scheduling include playing reigning MAC runner up, Ohio in 2007 and Southern Mississippi in 2006 (who lost in the C-USA Championship game). Lest you BCS elitists think that VT is simply playing top Non AQ teams instead of quality BCS opponents let me show you who else they are playing OOC. Since 2005 VT has played Alabama, Nebraska (twice), LSU, Cincinnati, and West Virginia.
Now that we are all feeling warm and fuzzy about the Hokies lets get one thing straight. Virginia Tech is not putting themselves out there as a sacrificial lamb. They aren't looking to be a stepping stone to the big time for any of these three schools in 2010. The squad from Blacksburg is one of the best and will be looking to destroy all comers regardless of BCS affiliation. I guess you could call them an equal opportunity butt kicker. Still, their scheduling practices are going a long way to keeping the FBS alive as one unified division, whether they are doing it intentionally or not.
