I mean, really. College football is the only mainstream sport that does not have a playoff. It’s ludicrous. This year’s victim is the Cowboys of Oklahoma State.
Coming into Sunday, everyone knew one thing: LSU would be playing in NOLA against one of two teams – Alabama or OK State.
The computers picked Bama to be ahead the Pokes. That being said, the Crimson Tide of Alabama will play against the Bayou Bengals on Louisiana.
Computers, you ask? Allow me to break it down for you.
The teams that participate in the Bowl Championship Series games are chosen by computers. Those computers use a simple formula of (A+B+C) / 3 to get their “total.” In this case, ‘A’ is the team’s Harris Poll score, which is voted on by 115 members of the media. ‘B’ is the team’s score in the coaches’ poll. The Coaches’ Poll is compromised of 59 coaches that vote on the teams’ rankings. And finally ‘C’ is the computer rankings. The computer rankings are calculated by dropping the highest and the lowest ranking for each team and dividing the remaining total by 100.
I’ve already seen this game. And even as an LSU fan, I did not enjoy it the first time – nor do I expect to enjoy it again. Alabama had the chance to beat LSU on their on field. Now, the computers have selected the same team to go down to the Superdome and play against the SEC Champion Tigers.
LSU has three top ten BCS wins; the rest of the BCS top ten has just two. LSU has road or neutral site wins over Oregon, West Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia. LSU also has a home win over Arkansas. Those five LSU wins are better than any five wins by any other team in the country. Alabama’s best win is Arkansas. After that the wins fall off in a hurry. Penn State? Auburn? Florida? Give me a break.
I’ll admit, I was on board with the Bama vs. LSU rematch…until Saturday when Oklahoma St. obliterated Oklahoma in the Big-10 championship game by a score of 44-10. That is worse, just barely though, than LSU’s win over Georgia in the SEC championship.
Let’s break down Oklahoma State’s wins now.
The Cowboy’s have beaten Texas A&M in College Station, Texas in Austin, Baylor (who has a Heisman Trophy candidate playing quarterback) and Kansas State (who finished eighth in the BCS) in Stillwater. Their only loss was to Iowa State in overtime. Some say that the program played with their backs against the wall because of the death of their women’s basketball coaches. However, that cannot be factored.
Now, Bama’s wins. The Tide beat Penn State before all the controversy…before Penn State collapsed. Bama beat Arkansas…in Alabama, as well as Florida in The Swamp.
That’s pretty much it.
Let’s say that Bama squeaks out a win in NOLA, and wins the BCS Title game. Can Bama legitimately be crowned National Champs? Bama would be 12-1 with a loss at home and a ‘neutral’ win. LSU would be 12-1 with an away win and a ‘neutral site’ loss, as well as wins against Oregon, West Virginia and Georgia – all on the road or in neutral sites.
Oklahoma State has not had a shot at the number one team and they are not going to get it thanks to the BCS formula, even though, they just beat the number 10 team in the country by 34 points to win their conference championship.
Alabama has the least egregious loss of the one loss teams which does not make them the best. Bama went 2-1 against teams ranked in the BCS Top 25 as of last week’s rankings. Oklahoma State went 5-0. They have a worse loss but at least three better wins, too.
The thing that I don’t get is how one can be considered to be the “best team in the country” if they cannot even be the best team in their league. It makes no sense.
That being said, I am a firm believer that the Southeastern Conference is far and away the best conference in college football. I mean, I am from the South.
LSU should be confident of at least one national title trophy for its trophy case in Baton Rouge – the given out by Associated Press.
How can you give a unanimous national title to a team that didn’t win its own division or conference title over the team that did. It’s nonsensical, illogical. While Nick Saban, Trent Richardson and company were chilling on their couches in Tuscaloosa, Heisman candidate Tyrann Mathieu was taking what he wanted on the football field, an SEC title, and an AP national title.
Yes, I am saying that LSU has already won the hearts of the Associated Press. Go ahead and persecute me if you want.
I’m not going to whine and say that college football needs playoff, we all know that. However, it’s about time that something happened that just makes no sense. A rematch deciding the BCS title game might just be that.
Mark it down, put it in paper, stone or whatever you’re writing on…LSU is the best team in the nation.
And they will go, 13 and eaux.