[SoCalCoug]

I don't understand why everyone's got their panties in a wad over this. Does anyone really believe we're in contention for the national championship next year? That's really the only scenario where we could use more of a boost in strength of schedule.

We're going to have a nice warm-up game to start the season. Considering how we've had trouble at the beginning of the last few seasons against BCS conference teams, it will be nice to get the kinks out and get a little momentum and confidence going into Washington.

And for the chicken littles out there, yes, it's a huge downer if we lose to Northern Iowa. But if we lose to them, what makes you think we would have won had we played Florida State that week? And if we lose, what makes you think we deserve a BCS bid, anyway?

We're going to start out ranked in the top 25 (if not top 20). We've got a huge jump over last year. If we go undefeated, we will be in a BCS bowl. If we lose 1 game, we still have a good chance of being in a BCS bowl. Consider that with 2 losses, and with not starting out in the top 25, last season, we still weren't that far out of BCS bowl contention. In fact, we weren't mathematically eliminated until after the last regular season game. WITH TWO LOSSES!!

Baby steps, people!! Playing Northern Iowa removes a potential stumbling block from the start of what can be a really good season.

I'm happy and relieved with the game.