Despite controversy LSU, Alabama deserve spots in national title game

Amid much controversy, the teams for the Bowl Championship Series National Championship game have been set. The Alabama Crimson Tide edged out the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the final BCS rankings to earn a spot in the national title on Jan. 9 in New Orleans against the Lousiana State University Tigers.
This is without a doubt the most controversial national championship matchup the BCS has set since its inception in 1998. Alabama and LSU are both members of the Southeastern Conference and are both in the western division of the conference. The two teams played earlier in the year in a game the Tigers won 9-6 in overtime. The game was hyped by many, including yours truly, to be the “Game of the Century.”
The loss seemed to end Alabama’s chances at landing a spot in the national title, but a perfect storm of losses among the top teams in college football led the way to chaos atop the BCS rankings. LSU went on to finish the season undefeated at 13-0, culminating with a 42-10 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta on Saturday.
For weeks, it seemed as though LSU would face Oklahoma State in the title game, but a loss to the lowly, unranked Iowa State Cyclones knocked the Cowboys from the unbeatens and their number two spot in the BCS standings. Other losses from top teams, including the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinals, moved Alabama back into the number two spot behind LSU.
After an impressive win on Saturday night by the Cowboys against the Oklahoma Sooners, college football fans anticipated the release of the final BCS standings on Sunday night to see if the win was good enough for the Cowboys to jump the Crimson Tide, – it wasn’t.
The announcement of a rematch in the national championship rubbed a lot of college football fans the wrong way. One of the main problems many fans have, especially the ones in Stillwater, Okla., is that Alabama did not win its conference, yet it earned a spot in the national title game. They feel Oklahoma State’s case for the title game is better because they won their conference title.
Another problem many have is that the game is a rematch. Many say Alabama had its chance against LSU and didn’t capitalize on it. They feel Oklahoma State deserves a shot, because of that.
My biggest problem with these arguments is that many of the ones who feel Oklahoma State should be in the title game don’t feel they are a better team than Alabama, but simply because Alabama has played LSU already and because they didn’t win their conference, they feel Oklahoma State should get a pass into the national championship game.
I think this year, more than any since the BCS was put into affect, that the BCS got it right with Alabama and LSU as the two best teams. Every year around this time there is an outcry from college football fans that the BCS fails to match up the two best teams in college football. This year it succeeded, but because it’s a rematch of two teams from the same conference, fans don’t like it. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. You either want the top two teams in the championship game or you don’t, no matter the circumstances.
I’m not a fan of the BCS. I think there should be a playoff for Division I football, but there is not. The best we can hope for is that the BCS pits the two best teams in college football in the national championship and this year it was successful.
Until there is a playoff, I want to see the two best teams play in the BCS national championship game and this year Alabama and LSU are the two best teams in college football, no matter where your allegiance lies.