BCS Race

Sorry for the hiatus. I hope that you have been enjoying this college football season as much as I have. How strange is the BCS situation right now? Will the last week bring any surprises? Let’s take a closer look.

 

While traveling to Nashville last weekend, I tuned in to ESPN Radio and there was a debate between the host and callers, many of whom the host cut off from talking to prove his point. It was kind of funny because most of the callers sounded like die hard Alabama fan Harvey Updyke. Many of them did however sound like they had legitimate points to make while speaking from the English dictionary. The hot topic of course was the possible rematch of Alabama playing LSU in the BCS National Championship Game. Oklahoma State had just fallen to the hands of Iowa State, giving every Automatic Qualifying team in the hunt a loss on the season besides LSU. There are a million scenarios and arguments that are legitimate from Alabama not deserving a rematch since it had its chance on its own turf to Houston deserving a shot since they’re undefeated. Here are the top five teams and their chances: (in my estimation of course)

 

#5 Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech is 11-1. They lost to Clemson 23-3 back on October 1^st and have not looked back since. After reeling off seven straight victories, the Hokies look to avenge their loss earlier in the season to Clemson in a rematch for the ACC championship game. After blowing out arch rival Virginia 38-0 to decide who would represent the division in the championship game, Virginia Tech may just have a chance to gain some momentum in the BCS race with a convincing victory in the ACC championship game. It would only be fair for them to do so with the pressure of having to play a conference championship game. Should Virginia Tech win, they’ll have a legitimate argument that they should be in the National Championship Game. However, they may be too far behind in the points race to catch up at this point. Two-Thirds of the BCS poll is controlled by votes (Harris and AP) and Virginia Tech has some major convincing to do. First, they just need to win the ACC.

 

#4 Stanford

Stanford is 11-1 and didn’t play a game against a team with a winning record until they beat Washington midway through the season. They later played USC, another team with a winning record and it took multiple overtimes to beat them. Next they played Oregon at home and it wasn’t even close. Losing that game cost the Cardinal, who will not play for the first annual PAC 12 championship or win their division outright. With Oregon predicted to win the championship game and go to the Rose Bowl, Stanford is almost a lock for an At Large bid to play in another BCS game. Their resume simply isn’t strong enough through the human vote or the computers to play for it all. As unfair as it is, Stanford needed beat Oregon to fulfill the dream season it started.

 

#3 Oklahoma State

Poor Oklahoma State! They had a trap game on a Friday night at Iowa State and could not come away with a much needed win. That seven point defeat could serve as the most costly in school history. Chalk it up to the pressure that they faced being #2 in the BCS rankings and knowing that all they had to do was win out. Thanks to a loss the next day by Oklahoma to Baylor, OSU leaped back to the top of the big XII title race and its national title hopes remained intact. There is just one thing in the way: Bedlam. The Cowboys host it this year and in order to make its argument to play for it all very clear, they’ll need to win this game. Beating #10 Oklahoma may be the right recipe to sway voters and help them jump Alabama in the BCS standings for the #2 spot. If they can win Bedlam, OSU’s argument will be that it lost an away game in overtime to a conference opponent and still won the Big XII and that Alabama lost a home game in overtime to a conference opponent on its own turf and did not win the SEC. How much more legit does the argument get than that? I’m sure SEC fans hate it. They just better hope that OU wins and wins the Big XII in the process. They’ll both be playing for their BCS lives on Saturday but OSU has larger aspirations should they win.

 

#2 Alabama

The Crimson Tide are the second best football team in the nation. I don’t think there is much arguing that fact. The only reason that they are not the best team is because they don’t have a solid, dependable kicker on scholarship that can win the game if needed. LSU does!  When the two matched up back on November 5^th, I don’t think I’d ever seen two teams as evenly matched. Bama moved the ball much better than LSU in the first half and the start of the second half, leading most fans to believe that in a rematch, Bama would definitely finish those drives with points instead of missed opportunities. That may be true and it may not be true. Alabama just waits at this point to see if it will get the opportunity that very few outside the state of Alabama care to see; A rematch. If the BCS was based solely on the best two teams in the country with no other equations, Alabama and LSU would have a rematch, this time for all the marbles. However, Alabama will have to survive the chase should LSU go on to win the SEC championship.

 

#1 LSU

LSU is the best team in the nation and have played the hardest schedule. They have proven week in and week out to be more resilient than each opponent in rout to its undefeated record. Les Miles’s team put to rest any speculation of a 3 way tie in the SEC West with its rout over Arkansas. Now it’s on the SEC championship game where it will face a Georgia team that has won 10 in a row and are as hot as any team in the nation. LSU can ill afford to lose now if it wants an assured spot in the BCS title game. But should they lose, the BCS rankings will get crazy enough to make college football implement a playoff at the FBS level as soon as next season. Just think, if LSU losses, OSU losses, and Virginia Tech losses, we’d have Alabama matching up against Stanford in the BCS championship with neither team having won their conference. Absolute chaos doesn’t even describe what could come to be. I could even see split polls and maybe one team winning the AP national championship and another winning the BCS title game. All of these scenarios make for heck of a Saturday upcoming in college football. Stay tuned.

 

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