Your Ballsiest Non-Conference Scheduler Is... Fresno State

For a program in the WAC, life is difficult. Outside of the BCS umbrella, giant paydays are foreign, and nationally televised games are a rarity. Even perfection is only rewarded in the most cursory of manners, yielding a lesser BCS bowl that places the program no closer to the title than if they'd spent the weekend in Shreveport.

And while the title issue remains, well, an issue for as long as the BCS's greasy tentacles ensnare the crystal football, there is a way for lesser I-A programs to get noticed, and that's to take the BCS programs head-on. There are few programs so willing to do so as Fresno State, the plucky Bulldogs from the mythical state of Fresno.

Fresno has a remarkable non-conference resume over the last decade, taking on such programs as Colorado, Ohio State, USC, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Also, this weekend, they face Wisconsin for the third time in six years. They also scheduled Sacramento State, but let's not concern ourselves with pesky confounders. And as the Sac Bee reports, that legacy is safe for years to come:

Nebraska, Colorado and Mississippi were added to the Bulldogs' schedule beginning in 2010. They also scheduled games against Cincinnati, UC-Davis, Cal Poly and Rutgers.

We'll be ignoring UC-Davis and Cal Poly, as they render my argument ridiculous. Say what you will about Fresno's success against the upper echelon, but they have inserted themselves into the national discussion better than anybody else in the WAC (oh, Hawaii? Boise State? No no; you've already stopped thinking about them this year, haven't you?). And when you're consigned to the ghettos of college football, that's about the best you can do.