Broncos still hope to crash BCS party Spartans win for Tomey

BOISE — A glow streamed from athletic director Gene Bleymaier's suite high above Boise State's funky blue turf.

Not because his team was about to win its 24th consecutive regular-season game. He was inside schmoozing BCS bowl executives wearing garish, brightly colored blazers.

It seemed to be working.

"This is a great scene," Orange Bowl chief executive Eric Poms said at halftime outside the suite, his smile as bright as his orange sport coat.

Below him, Boise State's band spelled out "BCS 2010" on that fake blue grass.

After the No. 6 Broncos (12-0, 7-0 WAC) won at least a share of their seventh conference championship in eight seasons with a 44-33 win over Nevada late Friday night, coach Chris Petersen strayed for his usual, tempered BCS talk of "it will all work out."

He was campaigning.

"We've got one more game (against lowly New Mexico State) and if we win, we've done everything we can possibly do. And we've done it for two years in a row," Petersen said, hoping the executives from the Sugar and Fiesta bowls also inside Bronco Stadium were listening. "We have confidence in the system and faith in the system that it should take care of the teams that should be in there."

His players and fans? They spent Saturday rooting for Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma State. Normally, that's a game no one in Idaho would lose any fly fishing over.

The Sooners routed the No. 11 Cowboys, eliminating one lower-ranked big boy from possibly trumping Boise State for an at-large bid to the BCS. It wouldn't be a total shock if the governor of Idaho issued a proclamation of gratitude to Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.

Unsightly begging to get into a broken system? Or is the system turning college football into a sport with more national interest?

"I think it's been great for college football," said Poms, before he headed to Fort Worth, Texas, to watch No. 4 TCU — the highest-ranked outsider in the BCS — on his trek to find an at-large team to play opposite the Atlantic Coast Conference champion in Miami on Jan. 5. "In South Florida, there's a lot of buzz for TCU and for Boise. They have great stories."

But is there a place for two so-called outsiders — teams that play outside the six conferences with automatic bids — in the BCS? Will the bowls begrudgingly take the Horned Frogs and the Broncos.

"I don't think so," Poms said. "The way the system is, we include the champions of the six conferences, (the) historically 'power' conferences, with automatic bids. When it comes to the at-larges, it's anybody."

To a degree.