Wetzel Claiming Delany Veto'ed Boise State in Sugar Bowl

I disagree with your assessment of Boise. I think Boise would run roughshod over the ACC most years, Va Tech included. They always have one game a year where they seem to collapse for a half and it comes down to their kicker (who is about as good as Gibbons 2010), but at worst I think they would pick up one loss in the Big East or ACC and would also be right up there in the Pac12 (where they should be anyway), Big XII, and B1G. I also disagree that we have nothing to gain by a team ranked consistently in the top 5 that continually beats highly ranked teams in big games. Say what you want about only playing a couple a year, but everyone knows they get up for those games and can play with anyone in the country. Plus a win would make people stop talking about them, if that is your cup of tea. I actually think we have less to gain by beating a team like Virginia Tech, who everyone now expects us to beat handily. First ever at-large from the ACC and they have been pounded in their only two games against a ranked team. Almost lost to Duke. How bad are we going to look if we lose to them?

I totally agree with you.  I can't state Boise, with their regular 11-1 and 12-0 records against high school junior varsity competition and their painfull-to-look-at field. 

I definitely would have enjoyed beating them.  That said, they would still scare be a bit as they do have some actual talented players who would create match-up problems for our D.  The victory would have been sweeter, but the risk of loss higher (funny how that usually happens).

On the other hand, V. Tech scares me much less, but beating them won't give me the "Hell yeah, FU __ (insert hated team)" feeling. 

I think that BSU would finish with a loss to VaTech, but would be 12-1 after the ACC championship game.

Agreed. Still, our schedule next year is indeed killer.  Notre Dame at this point is ready to sacrifice their mothers to whatever Touchdown Idol will finally give them a win over us. Alabama in the south is Alabama in the south. Nebraska in Lincoln is a big potential let-down game coming a week after we finally put Lil Bro back in their place. And Ohio in C-bus during UM's (ntUM) first year is going to be tough.

If you say we split the four tough road games, then we have to be perfect in the other games to equal this year's record.

If we stay healthy, we could do it. We'll see. 1997's schedule looked like a killer (and was) but that worked out pretty well.

I partially agree. Appy State was a big story in the way that, say, James Mason's win over Va Tech wasn't, because they beat Michigan, the winningest team in college football history. 

And it would be a big story if Boise State beat us, but a different big story than the Appy State game. That was shocking upset. This would be "more proof that Boise's among the nation's elite." It wouldn't really be an "upset" per se, because Boise would almost certainly be favored by  5-8 points. If we won, there would be a lot of "Michigan's Back." (Which we heard at the end of the OSU game, "Welcome back to national relevance.") Michigan would get credit for doing what those other teams couldn't.

They're obviously taken more seriously than they were five years ago, but I'm still not sure how much credit Michigan would get for beating them.