Fresno's Hill not about to cave in now

Driving past Bronco Stadium, you can see some of Boise State's BCS treasure from that Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma as giant steel girders and a pair of towers dot the skyline where the WAC school is upgrading its press box.

Back in 2004, when Gary Crowton's last BYU team lost to Boise State 28-27, after a Cougar chip-shot field goal failed, that press box was the biggest Mickey Mouse press facility in Division I. More crowded than an outhouse, the windows were opaque, like scratched Plexiglas and inside columns blocked the view of the field.

Seeing this upgrade is a tribute to BSU's venture into the BCS, now a trough Hawaii will slurp from at the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, making enough booty to make its entire annual football budget — in about four hours.

I bring this up because of the WAC recipe to get there is scheduling down (something somein other conferences, including the MWC are considering, including the Cougars) since strength of schedule apparently does not matter in the formula as the Warriors proved with the 117th schedule-strength ranking in the country.

Then comes Fresno State's Pat Hill, who is here to lead his Bulldogs against Georgia Tech Monday in the Humanitarian Bowl. FSU is doing so because Boise State refused to do so, electing to face and lose to East Carolina in Hawaii last week.

Hill doesn't believe in the way the WAC (Boise State and Hawaii) goes about scheduling. Instead, he's got his scheduling philosophy: "Anybody, anywhere, anytime." Of course, Hill's thinking may cost Fresno State home game money, a better record, a chance at a WAC title and the BCS portal, like forever.

But Hill doesn't care. Since 1997 his team has played 33 games against BCS teams, 23 on the road, four in bowls and only six at home, going 11-22. He's shared one WAC title in 11 years.

The Idaho Statesman's Brian Murphy got Hill rolling on this issue this week in Boise. Hill's rant was so intense, it's worth examining and I fully credit these quotes to Murphy's interview.

Defending his macho attitude, Hill said, "First of all, we can't get any home-and-home games with Division I schools from the Mountain West. We can't get San Diego State. We can't get Utah. We can't get BYU or Wyoming or any of those people. Why? I don't know. They don't want to play home-and-away with us.

"We have a choice: We play I-AA schools at home or we play BCS schools on the road, top-level schools because the middle-of-the-road BCS schools don't want to play us.