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SNSsportsbeat.net Article on TROY
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Burn the Horse Offline
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Posts: 8,626
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I Root For: TROY
Location: Heart of Dixie
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SNSsportsbeat.net Article on TROY
A little over a decade ago, a Division 1-AA power elevated their program to the highest level of college football, Division 1-A Football. 12 years, multiple top 25 finishes, 8, conference championships, 5 bowl wins and one Fiesta Bowl win later Boise State has emerged as one of the best mid majors in college football, defying the odds of it's semi-remote location, poor conference affiliations and losing multiple coaches to BCS Conference schools.

Someone in Southeast Alabama must have noticed, most likely head coach Larry Blakeney. To be accurate, the football program at what used to be called Troy State University had high aspirations before Boise even became nationally relevant themselves. In 2001, Troy State made an excellent transition from what was formerly referred to as 1-AA to 1-A with it's 7-4 record. And the record alone does not tell the whole story either.
In the Trojans very first moments as a D-1A program, they shocked the Nebraska Cornhusker faithful by taking a 7-0 lead. The Trojans would go on to fall to the eventual Rose Bowl (i.e. national title) runner up, 42-14 but gained more and more respect as the season went on by giving eventual all-time great champion Miami a good game for a half at the Orange Bowl and even defeated Mississippi State in Starkville, 21-9.

Over the years, the program has continued the tradition as when in their second game against the Cornhuskers in 2002, the Trojans outgained the Huskers before falling 31-16. Additionally, the Men of Troy went on to slay Missouri and Oklahoma State convincingly in the past few years and have given a number of programs a tussle before falling, most notably Florida State in 2006.

So the question is whether or not Troy is just like Boise State, in that all they need is to elevate to another level of competition just as Boise did in leaving the old Big West (where they had back to back 10 win seasons and bowl wins over Louisville and Iowa State). Can they follow in the footsteps of the Broncos, who almost immediately went from the best program in what was at the time the worst conference to best program in a middle level conference?

The answer is something we may never find out, as the most logical (and realistic) conference they could join, Conference-USA, has a preference for larger market schools and even if the conference is raided by the Big East again, it does not appear Troy is on the short list of replacements. Even within it's own state the University of South Alabama, who does not even currently have a football team, has been rumored to be a future C-USA target in a state that already has current member UAB who has contributed little to the conference's football side and never won a bowl game in their seventeen year existence. And similar schools without football programs such as Charlotte and Texas-San Antonio seem to also be future targets of the conference.

And what a shame. Troy has shown that just as Boise State, that a supposedly desirable location and being in a heavy population center have nothing to do with success and that heart and soul is what drives any program to the top. From day one at the FBS level, Troy has proven that they can play with anybody and if the Sun Belt keeps improving and eventually rises to the level of Conference-USA, then they may not need the "bump up" and would undoubtedly show C-USA what they are missing out on.
02-04-2009 01:08 PM
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