‘Please count us out’: What Boise State and Arizona State need to prove in the College Football Playoff

It didn’t take long for Spencer Danielson to hear from the doubters. The Boise State coach needed to simply see the nation’s reaction to the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket to know that the Broncos were expected to lose in the CFP quarterfinal round.

So many pundits were making the same point: Penn State’s path to the semifinals looked like a cakewalk, arguably the easiest draw of any team in the field. The sixth-seeded Nittany Lions drew No. 11 SMU — the last at-large team into the bracket — in the first round . . .