There is No Debate

I want to be brief with this because to me there is no debate. Alabama is the second best team in the nation and deserves to be playing in the BCS Title Game. It's not the match-up that I would want - I would love to see high-flying Oklahoma go against the LSU defense - but when you look at the resumes, it's the only option.

I understand that Alabama did not win their conference, let alone their division. But in the world of the BCS, where they award at-large bids to teams who don't win their conference, you don't need to win your conference to play for the title. If you want to mandate that teams must win their conference in order to play for the title, then the BCS needs to get rid of at-large bids. It's as simple as that.

I understand that they already had their shot, but it's not like they got blown out. Everyone making this argument seems to believe that their loss was the definitive statement that they aren't worthy of a shot, but the fact remains that they lost 9-6 in Overtime to the team currently ranked #1. If this had been 1990, we would have had a tie and both teams would still be ranked 1-2. But in 2011, there must be a winner and thanks to a little bit of luck, LSU happened to get the FG in overtime. Had one play gone differently, we might be talking about Alabama being #1.

While Alabama lost by a field goal in overtime to the top ranked team in the nation, Oklahoma St, playing under difficult circumstances following the loss of the schools women's basketball head coach, lost in Ames, IA to Iowa St, a team that is 6-6 on the year. I'm sorry, but they need to win that game. They blew through all the other challenges during the season - Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, Kansas St, but choked with the finish line in site.

If you throw out the names and conferences of the two schools in question and simply look at the resume, you see one team's only loss was to a 12-0 team while the other lost to a 6-6 team. I'm sorry folks, but it just doesn't add up. While Oklahoma St would be a more interesting opponent, Alabama is the more worthy opponent.

**

In other college football bowl news, how exciting is the Baylor-Washington game gonna be. Three weeks ago I officially backed Robert Griffin III as my Heisman candidate - now I get to see him officially shred my team's defense. Yikes.