now that louisville has beaten the unbeatable west virginia mounaineers, what will their fans have to say?  this was supposed to be the powerhouse that could beat anyone from any conference at any time.  after all, they clobbered last year's SEC champion georgia in a bowl game.

of course, as i've been saying all along, that was LAST YEAR.  when a team is undefeated and getting no respect, there is always a reason.  maybe its from a lack of consistent play, yearly dominance, or because they play a powderpuff girl schedule.  for WVU, it was definitely because of their lack of quality opponents.

 ...'but WVU has pounded lesser opponents, winning by 30 points against weak teams like marshall...' 

that says absolutely nothing about how good the team really is, but it does say alot about how bad their opponents are.  the days of getting the steve spurrier treatment for winning by 50 points every week are gone.  these days teams are graded much more based on strength of schedule.

 just a few days ago, WVU fans were whining more than the dixie chicks about how they werent getting any respect, and should have been ranked higher than michigan.  besides playing a bunch of games against really bad opponents, they had also played 2 fewer games at that point.  but still they felt their team was more deserving of the #2 ranking in the BCS polls than michigan.

 the arguement was made that michigan wasnt dominating opponents like northwestern, and that their schedule wasnt any stronger than WVU's was.  so even though michigan had played, and won, two more games than west virginia had even played, they werent deserving of a higher ranking.  this still amazes me.   if you get paid at work for each sale you make, should you be considered a better salesman if you sell 7 high priced items, while your competitor sells 9 items that cost almost as much, or the same amount as what you sold?  i dont think so. 

 another arguement was made that WVU just doesnt get any respect because there is a bias against them, or more likely, a bias in favor of traditional powerhouses like michigan, ohio state, USC and florida.  while it may be true that these teams get the benefit of the doubt in some instances, these teams dont have to rely on the '....we beat the _____ conference champion in a bowl game last year....' crutch. 

 ohio state beat a top 5 texas team early in september, and michigan easily handled then #2 notre dame (but still only managed to move up to #7 after that victory). 

 so WVU fans, you've been begging for respect all year, and were sure you'd get it after smashing louisville tonight.  only problem is, you lost the game, what little respect you had earned to this point, and any credibility you hoped to have with the BCS voters....not to mention your chances of even getting a BCS bowl bid are now all but gone.

 oh well, at least you can still brag about beating the SEC champion georgia bulldogs in a bowl game last year.  oops, that doesnt look so good now either, since georgia has fallen by the wayside of late. 

 remember, respect in college football is earned not by beating poor teams by 30, 40 or 50 points, but winning against the bad teams AND the good teams, whether its by 2 points or 20.