Guam - In just a few scant hours, less than a full day away, we're all going to witness what on paper is the best regular season college football game featuring the country's #1 and #2 teams since the Wolverines and Buckeyes duked it out in 2006 in Columbus. But even more so than the game itself, the outcome - and inevitable fallout - is what intrigues me.
So...assuming LSU/Alabama is going to be a close game and that regardless of the final score neither team will fall farther than #2 in the BCS standings, how does everyone feel about the possibility of having those teams meeting up again for a rematch in the National Championship Game?
Yeah. That's what I thought.
Most sportswriters I've interacted with and most fans not from or in support of the great states of Louisiana or Alabama are firmly against the notion. This is a one-time deal, they purport, mainly by virtue of the fact that it would be more unfair to the loser of the title game, who can then plead a semi-compelling case to stage an unheard of best-of-three tiebreaker, really stretching the "Bowl Championship SERIES" moniker to levels never before seen in its thirteen-year existence. I can't say I disagree with my colleagues. It's revisionist history.
Harken back to the magical fall of '06, when scores of campus pigskin aficionados wanted a second act to the Michigan/Ohio State classic; but Florida head coach Urban Meyer's lobbying got the Gators into the big dance - who then handily stomped the Buckeyes. While it gave Meyer his first of two championships in Gainesville, it also gave credence to future arguments about rematches. For many, Saturday IS the national championship.
(And do be wise to keep in mind that the concept of neutral field is right out the window - the BCS National Championship Game will be in New Orleans, so the favor would swing heavily towards the Bayou Bengals.)
And voting in the opponent of Saturday's victor is going to be a big conscience clash for pollsters, because at that point (assuming Oklahoma State doesn't falter in Stillwater to Oklahoma and Stanford takes care of business hosting Oregon) we'll have two other teams with unblemished records sitting behind a one-loss team in the standings - need you be reminded who belongs to SEC Almighty. So the voters, sympathetic to the cause of the theoretical matchup they'd like to see play and with human input constituting two-thirds of the BCS formula, either the Cowboys or Cardinal will wind up in the title game…as the third-best team in the nation. Which, by strength of schedule due to conference toughness will probably by Oklahoma State. So much for a system designed to pit the top two teams against each other.
It makes for yet another arrow in the quiver against the BCS. But who knows? LSU/Alabama may be so good, we may want to see them go at it again eight weeks later in the Superdome. Great - even more revisionist history.
Don't miss LSU/Alabama LIVE on CBS this Sunday at 10am on KUAM-TV11.
