Mizzou lost to OU and West Virgina lost to Pittsburgh tonight. They were ranked # 1 and #2 in the BCS standings respectively. They were also the last moderately clear “consensus” picks for those positions. Each could reasonably be argued to be in their rightful position. However, with the lack of red zone competency showed by an uncharacteristically scatter-armed Chase Daniels and Pat White’s early injury, the entire system is in a chaos unseen since… well, last year?
Nobody knows who is playing for the so-called “national championship”…. Well, we can guess who, but really, anything can happen. Basically, this is the perfect scenario displaying the need for some sort of playoff if you ever want to declare a true national champion. Every team has displayed warts that make them unworthy of being a shoe-in.
A quick look at the BCS Standings from last week shows that #3 and #4 are Ohio State and Georgia, respectively. I would think OSU is really the only sure thing to be in the game now, despite their meltdown against Florida last year. As for Georgia? hell, NO. They did not even win their division, much less their conference. While Nebraska went on to the title game in 2001(2) despite those warts, Georgia does not have the history, past or present, to support their position. Until this last weeks poll, Georiga was not in the top 5. Nebraska of that year was #1 or 2 up until 62-36. With Virgina Tech’s impressive performance against Boston College and LSU’s victory over Tennessee, I see one of these teams making it in with Oklahoma having the outside shot. Why not USC even eh? They sure have played well when not overcome by injuries to their offensive line.
Basically, I don’t see any way a team that did not win its conference should be in the discussion. The thing is, not a single team has done enough to distinguish themselves. Even OSU has nothing going for it as its schedule was full of questionable teams and the team they lost too was beating by Mizzou on the first day of the season. I say, give us a playoff or just have this year be the year where there IS NO CHAMPION…

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