Ok, Ok... I am a little biased on this one. I attend Colorado State University, a Mountain West Conference school, so obviously I am going to be a fan of the "mid-major" conference. In fact, I have always been a fan of CSU, even though the University of Colorado is only 40 minutes south of me in Boulder, and they are in the Big 12. All I hear from non-students and non-alumni of either school in this area is that they pull for CU over CSU because CU plays in a conference that "matters", and they "have a better shot of getting a BCS berth".

Here's my issue with that line of thinking and with the BCS. To me, it makes no difference what conference you play in or what BCS bowl you played in last season. If you played in the FedEx Orange Bowl, but the Rose Bowl was the national title game, then the Rose Bowl is the only one that really matters on a national level. The only people that the other bowls matter to are the one's that are playing in them and the boys in Vegas. The only reason that there are 5 BCS games is for TV revenue and gambling money. Why else would anyone tune in to watch Hawaii play if the game hadn't been hyped up for weeks on ESPN?

If you are in an area like this one, I say that you should pick a school that you like better and root for that school to win. For the most part, all of the teams in the NCAA are on an equal playing field within their respective conferences, with the exception of the perennial bottom-feeding teams. If a team can compete in its own conference and play in a bowl game that you can cheer for, then you should cheer for that team if you like them. The argument that you should cheer for a team based upon what conference they play in rather than which school you like is bogus, if you ask me. Pick a team because you like them, and root for that team. It makes a whole lot more sense than rooting for a school that you don't like, simply because they play in a "better conference". Support your local mid-major, folks!