Columns

Title fight: look for LSU, Sooners

By GARY SHELTON
Published November 16, 2007

In the national title game, I predict outrage vs. indignation.

In the national title game, I predict highway robbery over grand larceny.

In the national title game, I predict a questionable system will provide us with a questionable champion.

See. When you break it down scientifically, this prognostication business isn't nearly as hard as it's cracked up to be.

Even now, even when the stampede is in full gallop, even when more teams than ever before have a case to be in the BCS title game, it is obvious what lies ahead. Noise. Scorn. Controversy. Who knows? Somewhere along the line, someone might even bring up the possibility of a playoff system.

Along the way, I see LSU and Oklahoma on the inside.

Also, I see West Virginia on the outside.

Also, I see Kansas and Missouri by the wayside.

At any point, you may feel free to gnash your teeth and cry out in frustration. As near as I can tell, that seems to be the second objective of the BCS system. The first is to fatten the bank accounts of the major conferences.

In the most unpredictable of college football seasons, it's hard to predict who the last teams standing will be. To do so, you have to make the two dozen or so predictions involving every game of every team that can still talk itself into thinking it deserves a chance. It's like playing Jeopardy! with chain saws and a weekly poll.

So why LSU? For one thing, the Bengals are very good. For another, they are very lucky. Not to suggest that Les Miles has struck a deal with the devil, but he thinks the TV show Reaper is a documentary. If a paper airplane sailed in his window, it would probably be made from a winning lottery ticket.

The next break to come the way of the Bengals? Tennessee. The Vols will try awfully hard to lose to Kentucky in two weeks, but despite themselves, they'll manage to win. Now, facing Phil Fulmer in a battle of wits is always a good thing, but for LSU, it's particularly good fortune. Georgia would be a much stiffer test. For one thing, who knows what ploy Mark the Motivator Richt would pull. Maybe he'd take intentional penalties. Maybe he would change the jersey colors. Maybe he would tell his team that Uga had been taken hostage by Michael Vick and if they wanted to see their mascot again, they had better win.

Why Oklahoma? Because if you look at the schedules played by Kansas or Missouri, the Sooners still look like the toughest team in the Big 12. Certainly, they have the best resume. It says here that Kansas beats Missouri and, in the conference title game, Oklahoma beats Kansas.

Of course, that leads us to America's victims. This time, it will be West Virginia, which will spend the next two weeks beating Cincinnati and UConn. That will be impressive. It will not be enough. Maybe the voters are afraid West Virginia will wear those banana-on-banana uniforms. You know, the ones that looked as if they were stitched from penalty flags and Pooh Bear blankets?

In a way, Oregon got off easy by losing to Arizona on Thursday night. Even if they had won out, I had a gut feeling the Ducks were going to be leapfrogged by Oklahoma if the Sooners won the Big 12 title.

For the Ducks, that might have been too much to take. If you remember, the Ducks were left out of the title game back in 2001, perhaps because the voters had a feeling that both Miami and Nebraska were soon to get out of the business of winning football games.

In any case, there will be more voices for a playoff. And, sigh, wouldn't it be great to see LSU play Kansas and West Virginia to play Oklahoma and then have the winners play the next week for the really big trophy?

Sorry. Every now and then, I feel the need to punt a dead horse.

This year, there are so many teams that are close. You can hear arguments for Hawaii, even though it has played teams too weak even for Kansas' schedule. You can hear arguments from Ohio State, whose fans just joined the back of the one-loss line and promptly started to try to cut in front of the fans who had been there earlier.

That's the thing about the BCS system. There is no proof, so all you have is posturing.

This year, LSU and Oklahoma win the beauty contest.

Have fun storming the castle.

[Last modified November 16, 2007, 01:21:36]