Mike Leach lobbies for 1st place BCS votes after Washington State Cougars earn bowl eligibility for first time since 2006

Washington State hasn’t been to a bowl in exactly a decade, since their meeting with Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in the 2003 Holiday Bowl. That drought should be over after the Cougars won their 6th game of the season 49-37 over the Utah Utes yesterday.

Nothing is guaranteed in what has turned into a crazy finish in the conference, but the Cougars with a win at Washington on Friday would jump to 3rd place in the Pac-12 North division. A loss wouldn’t necessarily kill their chances though, because Oregon State has absolutely flailed down the stretch and with a loss to Oregon would be the odd team out.

Regardless, the Cougs are just worried about themselves and coach Mike Leach made that point abundantly clear in the post game press conference. Even so, he did throw in his ballot for first place votes when asked about the Cougars’ strength of schedule playing into their chances at a bowl berth.

"Ah, there’s a lot of rhetoric on that, ya know I doubt it. I mean they got machines that do stuff and then of course you guys are in the middle of it. You got a pile of reporters, some of em vote, some of em don’t and then some of them hype. And then the more hype the more people tend to go, so you guys need to hype us up like crazy and then everybody vote for the Cougs number one and then we’ll be in there.There’s a lot of factors and then everybody pretends it’s all scientific and then at the end of the day they do whatever the hell they want."

Awesome stuff from the Leachster. Clearly not the biggest advocate of the BCS, Leach said earlier in the week he’s been clamoring for a playoff system for a decade. He also said it will never be perfect with just a few teams in the field.

At any rate his Cougs don’t literally have to worry about being a top team this season, but they earn a 7-5 record and could head to San Francisco for the Fight Hunger Bowl with a win in Friday’s Apple Cup in Seattle.