Oh, Boise … what to do with those Broncos?

Before one of Idaho’s elected officials (as seems to be their sole purpose in Congress) screams for my head as a non-believer, let me first say that I love watching the Broncos play – from their wide-open offense to the “let’s draw it up in the dirt” mentality of head coach/mad scientist Chris Petersen.

I even like the dopey blue turf, even though the field itself doesn’t help when it comes to earning true credibility from college football purists.

Furthermore, the Broncos deserve all the credit in the world for going into enemy territory and knocking off now No. 16 Virginia Tech with all of college football watching on a Monday night. It’s a solid, commendable, non-conference win that would make any team one to watch this season.

But other than a home game against Oregon State, picked to finish third in a severely watered-down Pac-10 by the media last month, all that’s left on the schedule for Boise is an endless litany of Western Athletic Conference punching bags that are incapable not only of beating Boise, but testing them as they roll of touchdowns and stake their claim on the national championship game.

And because the preseason polls – which are based only on hypotheticals and whims – left Boise State in the top three before they ever stepped on the field Monday, there is nothing for the Broncos to do except eat cupcakes until January.

Let’s be honest here. Look at Virginia Tech’s schedule this year. At Boston College. At North Carolina (post-suspensions). At Miami. Georgia Tech. Are they going to make it through that without two or three more losses before they get Florida State in the ACC Championship game?

In a real conference like the SEC or Big 12, big wins like Boise’s in Landover have to be forgotten in 48 hours because there is another team waiting to rip your head off the next week.

In one five-week period, (Oct. 2-Nov. 6), Alabama plays Florida, goes to South Carolina, plays Mississippi, goes to Tennessee and then goes to Louisiana State. During that same time span, the Broncos host Toledo (who scored two points against Arizona last week at home), go to San Jose State and then take a week off before playing Louisiana … wait for it … Tech and Hawai’i. Does that really sound like the kind of stress test a national champion should endure?

It’s not all Boise’s fault. The big boys don’t want to play them because it’s a no-win proposition. The Oklahoma game in the Fiesta Bowl took care of that. They are in the conference they are, and I applaud them for moving up in class to the Mountain West for next season. But that doesn’t change what they are now and brownie points only go so far.

Kellen Moore is a legitimate Heisman candidate. The Broncos will get their chance in the future, when their schedule offers the kind of week-to-week challenges necessary to determine a rightful suitor to the national championship. But in 2010, Boise is still more amusing than assuming, still an outsider. And no matter what the rankings say, until they go through the gauntlet of a legitimate conference, they aren’t worthy of a national championship invitation.

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Whether or not the Yahoo report is accurate, the possibility remains quite real: Reggie Bush would be the first Heisman winner ever asked to turn in his trophy. Think about that for a minute:

• O.J. Simpson was never asked to give back his Heisman, which he doesn’t even own anymore after selling it at auction in 1999 with the money going pay off a portion of a wrongful death suit against him. The Juice also must have known he wasn’t going to be able to get it through the metal detector at his new home – Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Center.

• Mike Garrett, the 1965 Heisman winner, was the athletic director at USC while Reggie Bush was driving a better car and his parents were living in a bigger house than he was. He was fired and given a huge severance for his fine job driving the Trojans into a ditch, but he still has his statue.

• Ricky Williams was never asked to give back his Heisman. Now, Ricky has never admitted to smoking pot when he was back at the University of Texas, but when someone actually quits his day job in the NFL so he can concentrate on marijuana full-time – well, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

• Eric Crouch, Andre Ware and Rashaan Salaam were never asked to give their Heismans back, even though there is no reasonable explanation as to why they ever got one in the first place.

But now, the Downtown Athletic Club feels this is the time to retroactively draw a line in sand? Maybe Reggie can just reimburse the DAC for their rubber chicken at the awards ceremony and call it square.