The Sport Guy: On the brink of a BCS mess

Posted 12/1/11

At this point, most national pundits have embraced the foregone conclusion that the national title game will be Alabama-LSU, part deux. And to every one of my keyboard-pecking comrades who are quietly accepting that scenario, I can only say …

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The Sport Guy: On the brink of a BCS mess

Posted

Championship week football has arrived on the scene for the major college ranks. Next week, we’ll be discussing the BCS national championship game and a myriad of bowl pairings.

At this point, most national pundits have embraced the foregone conclusion that the national title game will be Alabama-LSU, part deux. And to every one of my keyboard-pecking comrades who are quietly accepting that scenario, I can only say this.

Hypocrites.

For years now, we’ve been sold the mantra from the powers that be that a major college football playoff is unnecessary because it would diminish a regular season in which every game counts. I have respectfully disagreed, but if that’s truly the mindset they want to take on the matter, then now is the time to hold them to the letter of those words.

An Alabama-LSU national championship game should never be allowed on the field.

Every. Game. Matters.

Alabama and LSU have had their chance to determine who is better on the field of play. LSU won. There wasn’t a controversy or some scandal-marred ending. Two teams played, one won. If the game matters, that’s all you need to know. Ring the bell and usher in the next contender.

And it isn’t like there aren’t other choices out there. Oklahoma State, if it can slide past rival Oklahoma in Saturday’s Bedlam game, will have made it through the season losing only once, in overtime, less than a day after the tragic plane crash deaths of members of the Cowboy athletic department.

Don’t tell me those sorts of things don’t cast a somber mood and make things like football, even major college football, seem a little less important in the short term.

Virginia Tech still has to win the ACC championship game, but if it does, it deserves to have its hat tossed in the ring. Houston, should it wrap up an undefeated season, ought to at least receive consideration, not because they’re a top-flight contender, but because they’re the only other team that’s won every game that’s mattered.

There’s another reason Alabama should be barred for consideration from the national title game. A team incapable of winning its own conference shouldn’t be allowed to play for the national title.

That, incidentally, isn’t my view. That was the chorus of mainstream media writers a full decade ago when the Nebraska Cornhuskers, thanks to the mathematical wisdom of the BCS computers, were able to have 60+ points hung on them by Colorado, miss out on the Big XII title game, but still face off against Miami for the national championship. They promptly got stomped.

So where is that outrage today, on the verge of yet another team incapable of not only winning, but simply earning a place in its conference championship game? A similar uproar should be targeted at anyone brave enough to suggest that Stanford has a legitimate claim to a spot in the national championship game.

Of course, all this could be rendered moot if Georgia would simply perform a public service for the sake of college football and win the SEC title game this Saturday. But even that leaves us right back where we already should not be.

Stuck watching one of America’s most followed sports wallow in the slop of a huge BC-mess.

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