The Championship of College Football will be crowned tonight. Supposedly.
For the second time this season, LSU will play Alabama. The first time it was Number 1 against number 2. It’s the same situation tonight but the BCS title is on the line. Many feel Oklahoma State should have been in this bowl game, but that it made more “entertainment” sense to have the Cowboys play Stanford and eventual Number one Pick Andrew Luck. Thus Alabama won out.
However what did Alabama win? Two questions will live in infamy about this game, no matter the outcome. First, if LSU wins, what have they won? Sure they win the National Championship. However the Tigers had already proven they could handle the Tide on their own home field. So this win would only serve as verification.
Second, if Alabama wins do we play again Saturday to see who breaks the tie? A win by the Crimson Tide simply makes each team 1-1 against each other and proves nothing. All off season each team can claim they are National Champion because they had beaten the other.
The first matchup in Alabama was a “snore-fest.” If you didn’t sleep through the game at some point then you are a glutton for football punishment, or simply a fan or alumni of the schools. Boring was the word as each team played like they were afraid to lose. LSU hadn’t decided on a quarterback, and Alabama coach Nick Saban may have performed the worst coaching job in the history of the game.
The previous game was a field goal bonanza. For a National Championship contender, Alabama certainly hasn’t spent any time bulking up their kicking department. Not since Florida State in the early 90’s have we seen such an effort in futility. Three Tide kickers tried field goals in the first game, only one made any. The ineptness of the offenses was on display that night.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said last week he believes the layoff from the regular season to tonight will help teams prepare. Herbstreit is drinking too much of the BCS Kool-Aid. These teams each had a bye week prior to meeting the last time, and still showed nothing. Sure these are good defensive clubs; it’s yet to be proven they are the best in the country.
Alabama couldn’t even win their division in the SEC. Why? Because they were behind LSU! Sure the SEC is the best conference in the land, but not so good that a team that can’t even win their division deserves a spot in the title game over a school like Oklahoma State with the same record and won their conference.
Excitement, Intrigue, anticipation and drama should hover over a championship game. This game has none of these. Nothing can be proven with either team winning. It will just be an empty off season of wonder and dismay on how we got to this game, on this night, in this season.
