Rick Reilly, ESPN.com (1/7/09)
No question, Utah is the national champion
"Some gifts people give are pointless: Styling mousse to Dick Vitale. An all-you-can-eat card to Kate Moss. The BCS Championship given to Oklahoma or Florida.

It means nothing because the BCS has no credibility. Florida? Oklahoma? Who cares? Utah is the national champion.

The End. Roll credits."
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Ray Melick, Birmingham News (1/5/09)
"...There is no getting around the fact that Utah clearly dominated Alabama, and there is no doubt that the Utes could compete in any conference in the country. The Mountain West made the Pac-10 its personal whipping boy this season, going 6-1 against a conference that went 5-0 in bowl games. And no matter what happens Thursday night in the BCS National Championship Game, Utah will remain the only undefeated team in Division I.

"Nobody can take anything away from Utah's very aggressive scheduling and the Mountain West Conference's determined push to be included as a BCS automatic qualifier."

Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports (1/5/09)
In the Anderson & Hester computer rankings used by the BCS, Utah finished in a virtual dead heat with top-ranked Oklahoma. And that was before the Utes stunned Alabama in the Sugar Bowl with a convincing victory that improved their record to 13-0 and guaranteed they will finish this season as the only major college football team to go undefeated.

"Our rankings thought they were deserving (of the national championship)," said Jeff Anderson, who operates the computer poll with his former college roommate, Christopher Hester.

Colin Cowherd, ESPN Radio (1/5/09)
"I think it's time the NCAA give the Mountain West BCS accreditation. They have earned it. I think you can make a legitimate argument that the Mountain West is better than the Big Ten."

Jerry Palm, BCS analyst (1/5/09)
"No non-major conference has had a year like this in the BCS era, or anything close."

Doug Segrest, The Birmingham News (1/5/09)
"It's time to adjust the BCS. Give the Mountain West Conference an automatic berth."

Jim Rome on the Jim Rome Show (1/5/09)
"You're gonna give the Big East an automatic bid, the ACC an automatic bid and not the Mountain West...Give the Utes a chance to play for the national title."

Tom Keegan, Lawrence Journal-World (1/5/09)
"Utah ending up No. 1 wouldn't be a joke. The Utes played like national champions in dominating Alabama."

Pete Alfano, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, (1/5/09)
"The most significant development, of course, is Utah's convincing victory against Alabama, which was No. 1 for five weeks this season and came within a half of playing for the BCS title."

Mike Sorensen, Salt Lake City Deseret News (1/5/09)
"If the Utes could dismantle Alabama they way they did, the same Alabama team that led Florida 20-17 in the fourth quarter before losing in the SEC Championship, why couldn't the Utes beat Florida or Oklahoma or Texas?"

"Unfortunately, we'll never know, but Ute fans can revel for a long time in the greatest season in Utah football history."

David Climer, Nashville Tennessean (1/5/09)
"Utah has gone undefeated twice in the past five years. Nobody wants anything to do with the Utes. The lords of the BCS should re-evaluate what they're getting out of the ACC and Big East and consider substituting the Mountain West champ on an annual basis."

"All the Utes did was line up and beat every team on their schedule, including ranked opponents TCU, BYU and Alabama."

"That's why they're No. 1."

On ESPN's Around The Horn (1/5/09)
Jay Mariotti, AOL Sports
"Utah should certainly be in the conversation (for the national championship). 6-0 against bowl teams. They go down to the south in the Superdome and beat Alabama fairly handily in their backyard, and now people are trying to diss Utah?"

Woody Paige, Denver Post columnist
"They were the only team that went undefeated. Of course you have to give them consideration. Let's consider this: They beat six bowl teams, they beat three ranked teams. But here's what's more important, they won seven games, including the Sugar Bowl, away from home. Seven games! There was a time when BYU went undefeated before we had plus-one games, and they won the national championship. Utah deserves it. They did everything that was placed in front of them. The Mountain West Conference was better than the Big Ten this year. They beat a team that beat Southern Cal. You've got to give them consideration."

On ESPN's Jim Rome is Burning (1/5/09)
Jim Rome
"How important can (the BCS Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma) be if the nation's only undefeated team, Utah, fresh off a beat down of Alabama, isn't invited?"

"What I didn't expect was for Utah to kick 'Bama's tail up and down the field all day long. I didn't expect a 60-minute mug job by a mid-major. There was nothing cheap about that. They didn't use a trick play in the last minute to steal it. They punched them in the mouth all day long. The better team won. It always does."

Mike Wise, Washington Post
"No. 1? I don't know, but I'd like to see it. After two years ago with Boise State, these guys aren't the Hoosiers of college football anymore. They deserve a shot, they deserve a look. I would argue that the Mountain West at the top is almost as good as the SEC. I know that's blasphemy in Georgia and Alabama, but that's the truth."

Mark Whicker, Orange County Register
"They beat the pants off an Alabama team that was No. 1 for most of the year. They beat Oregon State, which beat USC. They beat Brigham Young. Under the current system, you're looking at a body of work, you're not saying, 'I think they could beat this team, or I think they could beat this team', they're the only undefeated team, I don't see any way that they're not No. 1. I think that the writers that are always complaining about this system should vote them No. 1, no matter what happens in Miami (in the BCS National Championship game)."

On ESPN's SportsCenter College (1/5/09)
Kevin Neghandi, SportsCenter Anchor
(Utah is) the only FBS team to finish undefeated and they beat six bowl teams. This resume, beautiful.

Bob Griese, ESPN College Football Analyst
This was the most impressive win of the whole bowl season for me. Utah did this four years ago when Urban Meyer was there.

Rod Gilmore, ESPN College Football Analyst
"I think the one thing we all thought about Utah when you'd see them against an Alabama team was that Alabama was so physical that you couldn't expect that they would be able to hold up against them, but Utah stood toe to toe with them physically. In my opinion, 13 wins, six bowl teams, they are in the discussion, they are right there with USC, and right there with the winner of the championship game, and perhaps even Texas if Texas beats Ohio State. I think those teams all have a legitimate claim to being the best team in the country."

On ESPN's Pardon The Interruption (1/5/09)
Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post
What you gotta stop with is all these schools -- the ACC and the Big East automatically getting BCS bids.

On ESPN Sports Reporters (1/4/09)
Mike Lupica, New York Daily News
"On Friday night, Utah, the last undefeated team in Division I football, and one deemed BCS bowl worthy whipped an Alabama team that was No. 1 for five weeks this season. So how come nobody talks about the Utes being No. 1 in this stupid system?"

"Utah jumped on Alabama early Friday night and dominated them late, 31-17. They're 13-0 and the kind of Cinderella team that the NCAA basketball tournament dreams about, a real Cinderella."

"Nobody knew that they could do this to Alabama, and if they can do this to Alabama, don't tell me they can't do it to somebody else."

Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
These (BCS) people are incapable of blushing and they don't care that we know it's a mockery and a sham. We know that Utah deserves a strong vote for No. 1.

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. in the Salt Lake City Deseret News (1/4/09)
"I'm going to call (the Utes) national champs everywhere I go. We would be the undisputed national champion in collegiate football right now but for this crazy BCS ranking system. It's time to throw that recipe out and look a little differently at how you evaluate teams."

Mark Wiedmer, Chattanooga Times Free Press (1/4/09)
"Why can't Utah be No. 1?"

"I'm encouraging (AP voters) to adopt the slogan: "We Want 'U'!"

Mark Knudson, Colorado Sports Examiner (1/4/09)
"After smoking the previously top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide from the supposedly superior Southeastern Conference in the Sugar Bowl, the Utes not only finished the season as the nation's ONLY unbeaten team at 13-0, but they put the cherry on top of the stellar year for the MWC - a season that should prove once and for all that the league deserves total inclusion as a full-fledged BCS conference."

"Enough with the lame arguments that Utah didn't play a tough enough slate. They obviously did. And as long as the BCS boys continue to keep giving the Big East conference, which several Mountain West teams, including Utah, TCU, BYU and probably Air Force could have won this season, an automatic BCS bid, the argument that Alabama coach Nick Saban and others like to make about what constitutes a "real BCS conference," gets weaker and weaker."

"The BCS system is loaded with flaws, but they could fix one of them by simply bringing the Utes and the rest of the MWC into their all-too-exclusive club. It's too late for this Utah team, but hopefully in the future a season like the Utes had in 2008 will yield it's just rewards for any MWC team."

Eric Pratt, Dodge City Messenger (1/4/09)
"If a team goes undefeated when no one else does, destroys a bowl opponent from a major conference who spent five weeks at No. 1, posts a 3-0 mark against the BCS Top-25 (Florida, by comparison, is 2-1), yet has no chance of even competing for a title, what's the point?"

"Let's face it: Utah is simply the latest - and most legitimate - victim of poll fraud, denied by both human arrogance and ignorance. The Utes were behind the eight-ball from the start, unranked in the preseason despite going 9-4 with a bowl victory a year ago and returning the bulk of their lineup on both sides of the ball."

"If you stripped the name from the jersey and conference affiliation from the resume, Utah's accomplishments would be worthy of championship consideration. Instead, the Utes fought an uphill - and losing - battle all year long."

James Day, Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal (1/4/09)
"Utah shows - again - that college football needs a playoff."

Rece Davis, ESPN (1/3/09)
"Maybe the time has come to look at these types of teams differently in terms of giving them opportunities not only to play in these games but maybe even play for championships."

Associated Press (1/3/09)
"Maybe it's time the Mountain West power gets a shot at the apex."

Jimmy Johnson, Fox College Football Analyst (1/3/09)
"Mountain West, you get a BCS automatic bid."

Dennis Dodd, CBS Sportsline (1/3/09)
"This wasn't a fluke. Utah became the first non-BCS school to go undefeated in two seasons. You will begin to hear a cry for the Mountain West joining the BCS conferences. I can't disagree. The league was better overall than the Pac-10 in the regular season and just defeated a top-five powerhouse from the SEC."

"There is some convoluted formula for "evaluating" the automatic qualifier status of BCS conferences. It won't happen any time soon but it should: Drop the ACC or Big East from the (BCS) and elevate the Mountain West. Now."

"Will Utah get the final No. 1 in AP? Not likely. Brand names still rule in the polls. Should the Utes be No. 1. One word: Undefeated. In this age of parity, there was only team in the whole land that can make that claim. It walked into the belly of the SEC beast and embarrassed Bear's boys."

"I can't think of another team more deserving of being No. 1 right now. The Utes just took a small chunk of relevance out of that game they're playing down here in a few days."

"What do they call it, the BCS title game? That sounds kind of shallow after what happened in New Orleans."

Ted Lewis, New Orleans Times-Picayune (1/3/09)
"(The Utes' upset win) has to rank with the most stunning in the 75-year history of the Bowl."

Nick Saban, Alabama Head Football Coach (1/3/09)
"Guts, man, guts. (Brian Johnson) is the best quarterback we've played against all year."

Dick Harmon, Salt Lake City Deseret News (1/3/09)
"One thing is certain after Utah's victory, if the BCS system remains in play, Utah's Mountain West Conference deserves an automatic bid just like the Pac-10, Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten."

Tony Barnhart, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1/3/09)
"The little guys have made their case for better access: Four times in the past five seasons the non-BCS conferences have earned their way into a BCS game. They have won three of those games."

Olin Buchanan, Rivals.com (12/12/08)
"The Mountain West Conference isn't listed among the elite leagues in college football, but based on this season it should be. If there ever were a year for the Mountain West to argue it deserves status as an automatic qualifier for a BCS bowl, this is it."

John Feinstein, Washington Post (12/8/08)
"(The) Mountain West Conference (is) far superior right now to both the ACC, the Big East and maybe the Big Ten"

Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times (12/4/08)
"If Utah can be ranked in the BCS ahead of Penn State, the Big Ten champion, and Texas Tech, the Big 12 South tri-champion, why can't it be considered for the national title?"

On ESPN's Pardon The Interruption (12/2/08)
Dan Le Batard, Miami Herald
"If you ignore Alabama's name, if you ignore that the SEC is overrated. Alabama is those BYU teams."

Michael Wilbon, Washington Post
"I agree, The Mountain West is just about as good as the SEC this year. Which most people will say is some sort of blasphemy, but it's not. Look at the teams and what they've done on the field."

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports (9/15/2008)
"The BCS has six automatic qualifying conferences - ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10. The Mountain West is stuck with the rest, trying to prove itself worthy each Saturday."

"If you consider the strength of a conference by the difficulty of running the table by clearing week-in, week-out hurdles, only the SEC, Big 12 and, to a lesser degree, the Big Ten are more daunting than the MWC this year.

The Mountain West is fourth. The gauntlet for BYU is tougher than what USC has to handle in the Pac-10 (the Trojans' dominating nonconference performances make them No. 1 with a bullet regardless of where they play)."

"The Big East and ACC have little argument."