Possibilities of a split national title, thanks to USC's Rose Bowl win, slightly dim Sugar's appeal.
By BOB HARIG
Published January 4, 2004
NEW ORLEANS - The partying path is still aptly named, and those who frequent Bourbon Street could not care less that USC won a college football game the other day.
The French Quarter is filled with the typical revelers, an abundance of whom wear purple and gold. They have been streaming in by the minute from Baton Rouge, just a 70-mile drive away, ready for a rare shot at glory after a 45-year wait.
Outnumbered, but not to be outdone, are the Sooners, and good luck getting that Schooner anywhere near the Superdome, such is the chaos in the Crescent City.
Yes, the Sugar Bowl will go on as scheduled tonight, and it promises to be quite the ear-rattling experience with LSU, a virtual home team, playing Oklahoma for the national championship.
But something is missing, something feels strange. Despite the fanfare, despite two 12-1 teams vying for the BCS title, a good deal of air went out of the Superdome when USC beat Michigan 28-14 Thursday in the Rose Bowl.
The Trojans are sitting at home in southern California waggling their index fingers and proclaiming they are No. 1. And who is to argue? They entered the bowl season No. 1 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25 and are virtually assured of claiming the AP title when the voting is announced Monday. So that makes the Sugar Bowl for half the title, which isn't half bad but still not what was originally intended.
"My mom taught me to share when I was a kid," Oklahoma center Vince Carter said. "But there are some things you don't want to share, and a national championship is one of them."
The current plight is a BCS basher and playoff proponent's delight. LSU is ranked second in the polls and Oklahoma is third. But after all the BCS components were spit out by a computer, Oklahoma emerged No. 1 and LSU was No. 2, resulting in their date tonight in the Sugar Bowl. Meanwhile, USC was left out, but came up with a grand consolation prize: a victory in the Rose Bowl and a nearly certain AP No. 1 ranking.
No team ranked first entering a bowl game ever was dropped from the top spot in the AP poll.
That leaves the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll for the winner of tonight's game, though USC is ranked No. 1 there, too. But because the American Football Coaches Association agreed, by contract, to award its national championship to the winner of the Sugar Bowl, a final vote is simply for spots two through 25.
"I'd like to vote for (the Trojans) as national champions," said coach Jeff Tedford, whose Cal team was responsible for USC's only loss this season. "But you can't do that."
All of which makes for a strange situation - though both teams in the Sugar Bowl are doing their best to downplay it.
"I feel there are enough accolades to go around and the team that wins our game will get recognized for it," said LSU coach Nick Saban, whose Tigers seek their first national title since 1958.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has been more defensive. His team made it here despite losing 35-7 to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game. But the BCS standings didn't punish the Sooners, who appeared invincible before that loss, racking up huge numbers seemingly every week.
"That's how you guys operate," Stoops said of the media. "You told us for four, five, six weeks that we're one of the greatest teams in the history of college football. Now we're the ugly duckling and don't belong anywhere. ... You play enough games, eventually you're going to get beat. Everyone can debate it. If we'd have won, everybody would be debating the other two. Any time there are more teams available than spots available, you're going to have this. No one said it's perfect. You lay down the rules before the season starts and go by the rules. And that's all we've done."
Stoops has done his best to point out the crystal trophy awarded to tonight's winner is a lot nicer than the one given out by the AP - forgetting that one of the Sooners' national titles, in 1974, was a split championship, awarded by the AP but not the coaches, who did not recognize OU because the school was on probation.
Few remember that now, and that is perhaps the best point to be made. The winner will get a trophy and ring and celebrate a championship just like USC. And though now it might feel a bit hollow, it won't when the winning team walks off the Superdome turf.
"If we win, we're national champions," LSU strong safety Jack Hunt said. "Whether it's split or not doesn't matter. We can't control it. This is a big game, one of the biggest games of our lives. Everybody is into it, as our fans are. That's all that matters."
