Utah Utes football: This is the day TCU can change college football

FORT WORTH, Texas — Gary Patterson told a little white lie Tuesday when he said whatever happens Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City is not an end-all.

That was a load.

The reality is either TCU's or Utah's "season" will end Saturday in Salt Lake City. Nobody will say that, but for all practical purposes, 2010 will be over. All that will remain is a six-week trudge to the www.YourAdHere.Com Bowl, on a Wednesday night in scenic Sioux Falls playing on The Ocho.

For anybody who cares about seeing college football change, wants to see the BCS burn and hopes one day for a playoff to decide a national champion rather than a convoluted and ridiculous system, TCU must win this game.

GP basically told his team this Thursday. No lies. Just truth.

"This game is not an end-all, but what it is is you have a chance to be a part of history," he said. "This is a chance to be a part of something that will change the landscape of college football.

"Yes, it's about winning, it's about a Mountain West title, it's about BCS implications, it's about possibly playing for a national championship. But it's about the changing of college football. It's like what the Gonzagas did for college basketball. You have an opportunity to prove we can play at a high level and be a part of that. To me that is as special as anything you do."

TCU is not some modern-day version of Hickory High School, the fictional team from the film "Hoosiers" that wanted to win "this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here."

What we have here is a billion-dollar business whose product is amateur athlete-students playing a game. And what we have here is a monopoly whose scam is on the verge of being out-schemed.

As it stands now, TCU is closer than either Boise State or Utah to becoming the ultimate buzz kill for all of the BCS shills who want to keep this scam afloat. A TCU win Saturday, however, and the Frogs should be even better positioned to make the BCS' crooks squirm. You have to say "should" because you never know what those "computers" — which no one has ever seen — actually will say when the standings are released Sunday night.

Ostensibly, the same can be said for Utah, but the Utes don't factor in this equation the way TCU and Boise do. When the Utes accepted the Pac-10's invite to join the cool-kids lunch table, they lost the right to claim that they were in the same beleaguered crew.

But give the good people of Utah credit for trying to do the right thing despite their new status. An AP report this week said Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff is investigating the BCS for possible antitrust violations and is hoping to get the Justice Department involved.

BCS mouthpiece Bill "Baghdad Bob" Hancock told the AP that it is "hard to imagine a bigger waste of taxpayer money than to involve the government in college football."

I can think of at least one bigger waste of taxpayer money — the BCS.

The BCS is an aristocracy dressed as a democracy that uses government subsidies and exploits tax laws, according to the %recently published book "Death to the BCS". Talk about living the American Dream.

"Somebody has to keep the pressure up and prove we can play at a high level," Patterson said.

Every coach, every fan and everybody who wants change should be a Frogs fan Saturday. Of the 120 Division I football teams, exactly 67 have a chance to play for a title. In a way, TCU represents the rest.

This argument is not about whether the Frogs are better than Oregon or Auburn. It's about having the chance to prove they are better than Oregon or Auburn.

A TCU win Saturday potentially opens the doors for so much more beyond this season.