Quotes from the SI article about the WAC

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/cory_mccartney/06/18/wac.rise/index.html

About putting Colt and BSU's Ian Johnson on the WAC Media Cover, WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said:
"We did that with a purpose. That was to remind the media and remind the voters in various preseason polls that not only did Boise State finish the season in the Top 10 and Hawaii finish the season in the Top 25 [in the USA Today Coaches' Poll], but both those teams have the premier, marquee, Heisman-type players coming back." (SI)


About BSU's win in the Fiesta Bowl, Benson said:
"The Boise State win over Oklahoma was the grandest day in WAC history. It was the biggest win in WAC history." (SI)


About playing just 12 games this season, JJ said:
"Nobody wants to play us." (SI)


About Colt's and Ian Johnson's Heisman chances, JJ said:
"I know that it certainly put everybody on notice, last year. But you have to go off, 'What have you done for me now.' I think realistically, Boise State would have go to another 13-0 and Ian would have to have the year he had to even be in the hunt for that trophy, and Colt would have to do the same." (SI)


About their goal to be the best non-BCS conference, Benson said:
"Our goal is to be the highest rated of those five conferences and to separate ourselves from the others. Last year was a great beginning of establishing ourselves as the best of the group of five." (SI)

SI Note: "But the current nine-team lineup has a 32-24-2 bowl record, the highest winning percentage of the 11 Division I-A conferences based on their current membership. This is no overnight success story, even if before last season the casual fan saw Boise State largely as a novelty act that played on a Smurf-blue field and rarely saw Hawaii at all, considering the Warriors often play well after most people are asleep."


About how they are finally starting to get the respect they deserve, JJ said:
"I think the last four or five years we have not been given the credit that was due. You can go back four or five years ago, just after the breakup, and look at the bowl wins versus the BCS teams, we've held our own. Because of Boise State's win over Oklahoma and Colt's presence in the national media, we're finally starting to get credit for what has happened." (SI)