Boise State Is The Group Of 6 Playoff Favorite

Boise State and Western Michigan had never played each other before Saturday. It never felt like a game. The Broncos ran the other Broncos out of Waldo Stadium 32-7 on ESPN2, and Western Michigan only got on the board with just over a minute left. Boise State is now 3-1. WMU falls to 2-2 and spent the whole afternoon getting pushed around at home.

Early on the story was Dylan Riley grinding out yards against a defense that knew what was coming. By the time Boise State had it at 15-0, the national writers were paying attention.

Nicole Auerbach

@NicoleAuerbach

All Boise State so far in Kalamazoo. Dylan Riley is such a tough runner. 15-0.

The final box score says the same thing. Boise State put up 377 yards, 204 through the air and 173 on the ground. The defense held Western Michigan to 223 total yards, 2-of-14 on third down and 0-for-3 on fourth. That's not a close game where a few plays went one way. It's the better team pinning the other one down for 4 quarters.

What makes this matter is that it came right after Memphis. Boise State beat the Tigers 38-20 at the renovated Albertsons Stadium in a game everybody billed as a Group of 6 playoff elimination game between the 2 most likely candidates for the bid. Western Michigan came in with its own buzz as a MAC team that could make noise. Boise State flattened that too.

Adam Rittenberg

@ESPNRittenberg

Dominance from Boise State in Kalamazoo today. Memphis two weeks ago, Western Michigan this week. Boise State leaving little doubt about which team is best positioned to land the Group of 6 CFP bid.

Rittenberg's point is the whole race in one sentence. After Memphis, the Broncos already had odds of +230 to make the 12-team field. The contenders still hanging around are North Dakota State, now in the Mountain West, plus Memphis and UTSA out of the American. None of them has a pair of wins like Memphis and a road blowout in Kalamazoo. The Athletic's Chris Vannini took it one step further.

Chris Vannini

@ChrisVannini

Boise State is your overwhelming Group of 6 playoff favorite entering October. Just leaned all over Memphis and WMU. Remember, the G6 bid doesn't need to be a conference champion.

Vannini's reminder is the part to hold onto. If he's right that the Group of 6 spot doesn't have to go to a conference champion, one slip in Pac-12 play won't automatically end Boise State's run. What decides it is the resume, and right now nobody else in the Group of 6 has one that holds up next to theirs. That should keep pushing their playoff price down.

There's still a lot of October and November left, and Boise State knows better than anybody that a Group of 6 team gets zero room for error in the committee's eyes. But after 2 straight weeks of beating up the teams that were supposed to be their biggest obstacles, the Broncos go into October as the team everyone else is chasing.