I would throw 15 million chads way for him to run MX. I seriously believe if he wanted to, he could win the title. there is a tendancy for people to say he can only ride sx, however i differ in reasoning.
Heres my .02.....
Chad doesnt give it his all every time out. He is an intelligent rider, and rides strong enough to get the position hes comfortable in obtaining. If he knows he can only get second, he doesnt mind whether thats 1.5 second from the leader or 30 seconds. still the same amount of points. to me, he lost focus and motivation this year after stewart went down. he had what it took to run with 7, and after he went down, so did his mental focus. that is why everyone else seemed to catch up to him in lap times and results, he backed it down and made some careless mistakes.
if he were able to recapture that same drive and funnel it down on mx, i really think he could win a c-ship. content with 3rd while rc and js were 1 and two, he rode enough to keep ahead of fourth. we know he has the speed and ability, as witnessed at the mxon, running rc and rv pace, now all he needs is that drive and motivation all the time to hang it out, and i have no doubt he would win 6-7 races throughout the year and give him the number one plate.
for yamaha, that would mean out of the 5 last champions, 4 of them were on blue bikes. (langston 07 mx, lawrence 08 sx, reed 08sx, and mx08 reed) that would be extremely impressive.
not only that, i think chad could really cement his place in dirtbike history , not just sx.
again, just my honest opinion