Just hand the crystal football to LSU first. Then hold Monday’s BCS National Championship Game as an exhibition contest between the No. 1 Tigers and No. 2 Alabama.
Barring a blowout victory by the Crimson Tide, the Tigers should be the national champs in, at least, the Associated Press poll.
And even with a lopsided loss, I’d be tempted to vote LSU No. 1. The Tigers’ season-long resume is that overwhelming — and that much better than Alabama’s.
Thankfully, for Alabama fans, my own sanity and the Statesman’s email filter, I won’t be asked to cast a vote after Monday’s game. However, I’m not alone in thinking the National Championship Game won’t be the be-all, end-all when it comes to who is No. 1.
Only 11 of the 44 AP voters that responded to a quick survey by The Associated Press said they would vote the winner of Monday’s game No. 1 no matter what.
Three voters said they were leaning toward voting LSU No. 1 regardless of the outcome.
The coaches are obligated to vote the winner of the title game No. 1, though some have gone rogue in recent years, but the writers are free to choose their own champ.
And it should be LSU.
The Tigers have defeated eight ranked teams already this season, including then-No. 3 Oregon, then-No. 2 Alabama and then-No. 3 Arkansas. LSU has beaten the champions of the Rose (Oregon), Orange (West Virginia) and Cotton (Arkansas) bowls. LSU beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa during the regular season.
Alabama also defeated Arkansas, but the Crimson Tide’s next best win is, um, at Penn State. Sorry, Alabama. It’s an unfair system, just ask Boise State or TCU or Utah or Auburn or USC — undefeated teams that didn’t even get a chance to play for the title in recent years.
Pre-title game, there is simply no comparison between the résumés of LSU and Alabama. So, in the event of a Crimson Tide victory, voters may have to determine why one game in January — after a month’s layoff — is more important than an entire season’s worth of work. Or as former ESPN analyst Craig James liked to say, “body of work.” Each could have one loss to the other. A tiebreaker is needed, and LSU wins it handily.
Stop with any comparison to the Super Bowl, the final game of the NFL season which definitively crowns a champion. NFL coaches and writers are not asked to vote on a champion after the Super Bowl.
If the BCS National Championship Game were the true end of the season and the final act in determining a champion, there would be no polls released postgame.
Throughout the year, those ballots are based on how a team performed in total. That should remain the standard now. The college football anarchist in me is rooting for a controversial finish, an overturned touchdown or a disputed call that gives Alabama a 21-20 victory or a 14-13 win — and leads to the first split national title since the 2003 season when LSU won the BCS title game, but USC, passed over for the game despite being No. 1 in the coaches’ and AP polls, earned the writers’ votes after its Rose Bowl win.
Ah, you’ve got to love the BCS.
Another split title might be enough to nudge the powers-that-be into a real shift in the BCS format. Conference commissioners will consider changes during the next six months, with options ranging from small tweaks to a complete ditching of the system.
A playoff, even a small one, could leave no doubt as to who is the national champ. Under the current rules, LSU has already done enough to earn that distinction.
Brian Murphy: 377-6444
