tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

An LSU – Alabama Proves The BCS Is A Joke!!!!

For those of you who live in Western New York, a discussion on who should be in the College Football National Championship Game will never happen on the area's only all-sports station, WGR 550. They are too busy doing food drafts, lamenting the NFL's black out policy and convincing the Buffalo faithful how they always get screwed. However, for the rest of us sports fans the issue of how a college football national champion is chosen is always a topic of conversation this time of the year.

LSU is the only undefeated team in the country. This weekend they will play 10-2 Georgia to determine if they will be the SEC champion. Most experts expect LSU to win and end the season at 13-0 moving them toward the BCS Championship Game. These same experts and the BCS rankings has them facing Alabama. You got it, the same Alabama team that LSU beat in Tuscaloosa 9-6 in overtime. My question is why???? It's not like Alabama is the only once beaten team in the country.

The number 3 team in the BCS rankings is Oklahoma State. The Cowboys will face their arch-rivals the Oklahoma Sooners this Saturday. A Cowboy victory will put them at 11-1 for the season and moreover will give them a victory over six teams with a winning record. By the way, in Alabama's 11 wins this year only 3 were against teams with a winning record. Oklahoma State had the 10th toughest schedule in the country compared to Alabama which had the 38th toughest schedule.

A rematch between Alabama and LSU for the national championship would be a joke. If Alabama wins that game, both teams will have one loss splitting the two games that they played against each other. Does that make the Crimson Tide the national champions??? I say not necessarily and why should they be. How is it fair for the Tigers??? LSU beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Losing a close one in the national championship game should not eliminate the Tigers from being the national champion.

This situation tells us two things. First, there appears to be an SEC bias. The overriding belief by many of the talking heads is that the best football in the country is played in the SEC. If you examine the Big 12 and the SEC both conferences have 6 teams over .500. It should be noted that the Big 12 has 10 teams in its conference while the SEC has 12. Secondly, a rematch will confirm what many already know: there is a need for a playoff format to determine college football's national championship. You often hear how a late season loss hurts more than a loss early in the season if you want to qualify for the big game. The 1st Alabama-LSU game was November 5th. Virginia Tech's lone loss was in October against Clemson. Using this logic, why aren't they a possible entry into the big game??

One more thing to consider: what if Georgia wins on Saturday and Oklahoma State defeats the Sooners??? Does LSU go to the championship game??? Would Alabama have a chance even though they did not even play in the SEC Championship game and they already lost to LSU?? And what about Stanford, a team thats only loss was to Oregon??

An LSU-Alabama rematch for the national championship would be a bust. LSU will be forced to beat Alabama twice in order to be crowned the undisputed national champion. An Alabama win would give us a number of one loss teams who would have a legitimate claim to the national title. The other thing to consider is that the first game between these two teams was a defensive struggle. Wouldn't it be more intriguing to see if LSU would be able to stop a prolific Oklahoma State offense in the national title game???

Here's hoping that Georgia wins and Oklahoma State wins. This will turn everything on its head. In the meantime at WGR550, the topic will be whether or not the Bills should tarp off seats so they are not penalized for having the largest stadium in the NFL.