Boise State owns Utah — and the MWC

It was Halloween night, 1987, and the Utes were getting out of Dodge, just ahead of the posse. They had escaped with a 31-27 win over Boise State, a I-AA team with solid-gold plans but a nickel-plate budget.

Crammed into a car were media and University of Utah athletic officials, heading back to the airport for the trip back to Salt Lake. The consensus among those in attendance was that those type of games should be avoided.

Nothing much to be gained by playing that far beneath you.

Nineteen years later, it appears they may have been right.

Exactly why did Boise State agree to play Utah this year, anyway?

This much is clear: Boise owns the Utes — and the Mountain West Conference, too. That little issue of which team belongs in a BCS bowl was settled Saturday, as the Broncos ripped Utah, 36-3. For those keeping score — which almost certainly includes everyone in the Treasure Valley — the Broncos are 11-0 all-time against the MWC. That's not an advantage, it's a holocaust. Included on that list are three wins over Utah and two over BYU. Among them were Saturday's 33-point pounding and a 38-point win over BYU.

"I think it's a credit to the Mountain West Conference," said BSU coach Chris Petersen, putting a first-class spin on a first-class blowout, "because our guys get excited to play these guys, just like they get excited to play Pac-10 teams."

Particularly if you're 11-0 against them.

For anyone planning to mount a campaign to get the Utes back to a big-time bowl, never mind. TCU, BYU and the rest of the MWC can forget it. The only mid-major team in the West with a chance to be playing for multi-millions in the postseason is BSU. How convincing was it? Enough so that Ute fans booed when starting quarterback Brett Ratliff returned to the field after Boise went up 23-3.

Ratliff was bad — three interceptions — but he wasn't alone.

Backup quarterback Tommy Grady came in to throw six passes, including an interception of his own. The Ute defense allowed 188 rushing yards. Did we forget anyone? Oh, yes, the marching band. It played the fight song stirringly at halftime, but its formation looked more like U-T-O-H than U-T-A-H.

As in U-T-OOOOOH!

"It's like a bad dream," said Ratliff.