Last week, ESPN.com writer Ivan Maisel set off a firestorm of Internet controversy when he published a column listing the top 10 college football programs of the 2000s. Unsurprisingly, after 10 years of failing to agree on a good name for the decade, the mass public also couldn’t decide who belonged.

TCU came in at No. 10 on Maisel’s list, behind (in order) USC, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, LSU, Boise State, Georgia and Virginia Tech. While it was a wonderfully generous move to place both TCU and Boise in the top 10, I’d argue that the writer has been distracted by the “Decade of the Mid-major” talk pushed by the people paid to talk on ESPN.

I think they forgot to squeeze “of injustice” in there somewhere. If the past 10 years have been as good as it gets for mid-majors, we might as well quit. The BCS Championship system doesn’t give every team a fair shot at the championship in August. Not until TCU, Boise, Utah or any of the other mid-majors hold up a national championship trophy will we have seen the decade of the mid-majors.

Don’t get me wrong, the growth of TCU’s football program is one of the best stories of the decade. However, if you could trade our past decade for, say, the University of Miami’s (which included 34 straight wins and two BCS championship trips, winning one), you would in an instant. The 2001 Miami Hurricanes are in the conversation of the best college football teams of all time, and deservedly so. Meanwhile, in 2001, TCU played in the GalleryFurniture.com Bowl.
But Miami isn’t alone in their complaints.

As much as I hate to say it, even Utah deserves that No. 10 spot more than TCU. Utah’s recent success began with a win over USC. Their’s came in 2001 in the Las Vegas Bowl. After that, the Utes finished the decade with three conference championships (one less than TCU) and two BCS wins (two more than TCU) that gave Utah final top five rankings in 2005 and 2009. Include eight bowl trips in the decade to TCU’s nine, and there is a solid argument starting to form.
However, Utah’s win over Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl trumps any signature win for TCU. In the eyes of the fans, Boise kicked open the door in 2007 over Oklahoma, and Utah made it abundantly clear that mid-majors could beat the best in 2009. The Horned Frogs are yet to prove anything on a national scale. When that happens, TCU deserves its spot on the list. Until then, we don’t need pats on the head and, “Aww, that’s cute.”

We have a winner on our hands in Fort Worth. I hope, and honestly believe, that the next decade could be an even better time to start wearing purple. The program is still waiting for its national-stage win, but it will come soon. Once it does, alright Mr. Maisel – we’ll be ready for our close up.

Josh Davis is a junior news-editorial major from Dallas.