The great debate
Who belongs in the BCS National Championship game? It seems like this debate comes up every year, and it does have to come up every year because unlike the professional sports college players don’t have to worry about salary caps and lockouts, which in reality makes life really nice. But back to the real subject who belongs in the title game? Right now five teams in the BCS standings and the AP Top 25 poll are all stand out teams that are undefeated and have a legitimate claim to go to New Orleans and participate in the All-State BCS National Championship Game.
This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.
Who belongs in the BCS National Championship game? It seems like this debate comes up every year, and it does have to come up every year because unlike the professional sports college players don’t have to worry about salary caps and lockouts, which in reality makes life really nice. But back to the real subject who belongs in the title game? Right now five teams in the BCS standings and the AP Top 25 poll are all stand out teams that are undefeated and have a legitimate claim to go to New Orleans and participate in the All-State BCS National Championship Game.
The five teams that have claims to the title game are Louisiana State University, Alabama, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Standford. All of these teams have made statements throughout the season and deserve to be looked at, and “Next on the tee” is going to give each one a look.
LSU Tigers
LSU may be the most explosive, deep and toughest team in all of college football. They started their season against number three Oregon, which made an appearance in last season’s BCS title game against Auburn. LSU ran, passed and pretty much walked all over the Ducks. Since then LSU has beaten three more teams that have been in the AP Top 25. Remaining in the schedule are three more ranked teams including number 20 Auburn at home, number two Alabama in Tuscaloosa and number nine Arkansas at home. Unfortunately, having to play Alabama in their own backyard I think is going to be too much for the Tigers and they are going to end up losing. But if they can pull it off you can more than likely crown LSU as the National Champions right on the spot because there will not be much more to stop them.
Alabama Crimson Tide
“Roll TIDE!,” and everybody in college football knows that that is exactly what the Crimson Tide do under head coach Nick Saban, they roll all over the opposing offense and defense. So far the Crimson Tide have beat four Top 25 teams and only have two left on the schedule, those two teams are LSU and Auburn. Going back to what I said about LSU, Alabama at home is pretty much impossible to beat so you can almost put up a “W” right there. The Auburn game is a little different just because it is the Iron Bowl, one of college football’s greatest rivalries and anything can happen. I am still predicting that the Tide will roll over both of these teams, and all over whomever they play in the SEC Championship game, and all the way to New Orleans. Alabama is the hardest team to beat and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Oklahoma Sooners
“Boomer Sooner,” need I say more? Oklahoma has put their foot on the gas and haven’t stopped all season. They have scored 272 points this season compared to the 105 that they have given up. Landry Jones and they make you attempt to play catch up (which doesn’t happen because the defense keeps the field locked up like a safety deposit box in a Swiss bank. The sooner’s have already sent two ranked opponents away with their heads hung in shame, including Texas, which is Oklahoma’s biggest rival. They have three ranked opponents left on the schedule, including Oklahoma State, which means that the “Bedlam” game is going to be a great one this year, especially since OSU is ranked in the Top five right now in the BCS. If Bob Stoops can take the Sooners to Stillwater, OK., and beat the Cowboys a ticket has pretty much been punched for to the National Championship.
Wisconsin Badgers
The Badgers will impose their will throughout the rest of their schedule in the BIG-Ten and will probably do so all the way to the inaugural BIG-Ten Championship game and Selection Sunday, where we find out which bowls teams will be competing in. Wisconsin has only one win over a ranked opponent this season, but it was the Nebraska Cornhuskers which is always a force to be reckoned, and shows what the badgers are capable of. Wisconsin has three ranked opponents left on the schedule, including the Michigan State Spartans, Illinois fighting Illini and you can’t forget Joe Paterno and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Although I don’t think the Badgers necessarily will make it to the National Championship game, if all of the cards fall into place they certainly could be contenders.
Stanford Cardinals
Although they are ranked eighth in the BCS Poll, I think that the Cardinals are getting robbed. Sure they haven’t really played anybody that puts up a fight but when your school’s main focus is academia with athletics second, yet you still rank fifth in points that are given up and fifth in points that are scored you are either lucky or you are lead by a guy named Andrew Luck. Luck and the Cardinal’s offense is spectacular, and I would dare say that they could score almost as easily on an SEC or Big-12 defense. The Cardinal’s have two ranked opponents left on the schedule and I think they will easily win the PAC-12. The BCS computer and all of the people in charge of the rankings should definitely give more credit to the Cardinals and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to sneak in to the National Championship, but the two SEC teams and Oklahoma would have to lose for that to happen.
As for the prediction of what two teams will be playing in the All-State National Championship game, as of Oct. 16, 2011, I am predicting the Alabama Crimson Tide against the Oklahoma Sooners. But if there is anything to learn from college football it is that anything can happen at any time, and any one of these five teams could be playing for the title, it all depends on which cards are dealt and how the chips fall.
This is why “the great debate,” has been on the tee.
