I'm not saying they are a great football program but they aren't horrible. They did do well enough to go to a BCS game and, even in rather bad years, they've beaten Missouri twice now. Sure, they aren't a TCU or Utah, or even a Kansas State or Arizona. OTOH, they are better in football than Iowa State, Purdue, and it could be argued they are better than Missouri.

In fact, the Kansas is somewhat of a good comparison - they are in many ways like Kansas, with a good couple of years where they went to a BCS game but otherwise not great (though arguably UConn is better) but both have great basketball that helps make up for some of their football shortcomings. I think most of us would have liked if UConn had been invited to the Big 12 along with BYU -- as in many ways they were a better choice than Houston or Cincy.