Saturday (BOISE! OHMYGOD!) Quickie

Boise. Oh my god.

No way. No effing way. No way that game finished the way it did: With Boise getting... well, out-Boise'd.

Losing a big lead? Missing a chip-shot FG to win in regulation? (Or another in OT, setting up the loss?)

When Boise, after losing their huge lead, hit that bomb with less than 10 seconds left on the clock setting up an easy FG, you were just like "Of COURSE they just did that."

Then, the miss.

Hol-eeee shhhhh....

I don't believe in this at all, but gosh did it feel like fate/karma/whatever were conspiring against them to say: No, this isn't your year.

And so there will be no BCS debate about Boise State. There might not even be a New Year's Day bowl, given that they won't even win the WAC.

I'm sorry, but this is why college football's regular season matters. That game totally undercut the "Death to the BCS" argument that CFB's regular season isn't as great as fans think it is.

It IS that great.

Boise's consolation -- although no Boise fan will care -- is that they were involved in the best game of the year... one of the most memorable games in recent college football history.

And, as much as anything, it is a great reminder that no game should be taken for granted: Not Oregon's season-finale against Oregon State... not Auburn's season-finale against South Carolina. I could see both teams losing. In fact, I think both teams WILL lose.

If Boise State can lose -- check that: if Boise State can lose in the way that they did last night -- then Oregon can lose on the road to its biggest rival or Auburn can lose on a neutral field to a team that nearly beat it in September, beat Alabama thoroughly and has been playing as well as any team in the country for the last few weeks.

This game should have restored -- or affirmed -- your faith that anything can happen in college football. And that college football's regular season remains supreme in sports.

Auburn stakes its claim: Auburn had no business winning that game. Down huge to rival and defending national champ Alabama. At Alabama. In front of a frenzied crowd, smelling Auburn blood. Cam Newton totally shut down -- seemingly solved.

Then... the comeback. TD after TD. Defensive stand after stand. It was as impressive of a win as we have seen in college football this season -- more than enough to justify ranking Auburn No. 1. Cripes, it was almost as jaw-dropping as Nevada's win over Boise. And that's saying something.

All that said: Given how well South Carolina is playing -- they throttled Alabama and nearly beat Auburn at Auburn back in September -- it is entirely possible that Auburn could win the rivalry war, yet lose the BCS battle.

-- D.S.

PS: Just realized I didn't hit "Publish Post" on yesterday's post. So I just did. Please read the post directly below, if you want to see it. Sorry about any confusion.