Really? That was the championship game? A couple worthless field goals, a lifeless team, an uninspired touchdown? That was the great big rematch that we were anticipating? It wasn’t just that one team dominated the score, with Alabama scoring everything---it was the fact that this so-called #1 team, LSU, was utterly lifeless from the first minute to the last. This is your #1 squad? This is your #1 team? And Alabama, despite having their way with the other pitiful dead-heartbeat team, only pulled in 21 points....consisting of a multitude of field goals. The kicker had more success than the quarterback. Wait, that sounds familiar.
That was what happened the previous time they met earlier this season!! A field goalapalooza! And what makes it worse was that we had so many amazing games from truly dominating teams (and hungry teams) in previous Bowl Games, ranging from the pissed-off West Virginia to the much-more-pissed Boise State. And let's not forget the record-breaking numbers of West Virginia, Baylor, Washington. Those teams truly wanted to win, they played their hearts despite each knowing that they are in a broken, flawed, and miserable system. LSU played like total crap and pretty much wasted their pampered ticket to the big dance.
I want to believe that Alabama is truly the best team in the nation, and deserves that national title. At first I wanted LSU to win to avoid the controversy, that was until the end of the first quarter when it looked like they were lazily lollygagging through the biggest state in college football. But here's the truth: Alabama's loss in the season came against a team that really isn't that good-----and it took until this ugly championship game as proof. Oklahoma State lost one game, and that loss was after a horrible tragedy struck the school. Boise State in the past four years have lost three games by a total of just 5 points---and are even farther away from having a remote shot at a title. Stanford's only loss came against a nasty Oregon team--who scores about 40+ a game.
I want to believe that Alabama becoming #2 was justified, and eliminating LSU entitles them to becoming the top college football team in the land. But my mind can't accept that, not now, and probably not until we get that darn playoff system that only makes too much sense. If there is any evidence that states that we need a playoff badly, desperately, truly, madly, deeply, it was last night’s awful fiasco. It was a bad game. An ugly game. A boring game. And there was nothing the ESPN analysts and commentators could provide that would tell me otherwise.
The ranking system is probably still necessary to create the seeds (although the way we rank the teams should also be fixed) but the top teams all deserve a final shot at the final game. Top 8, Top 16, something, anything, for goodness sakes. We need momentum in this sport, we need a scheduling drive of some sort. Bowl games should whether be extremely limited or fully eliminated. If it were up to me, the top couple teams from each division (or top 16 ranked teams) should compete in a one-game-winner-takes-all playoff. Last team standing wins, and it will finally be fair and justified because they all had their chance, instead of us embezzled in the Woulda' Coulda' Shoulda' thoughts.
Bottom Line: This is most likely me overreacting to this game since the misery is still fresh in my mind. But one thing is certain, the uneasy feeling circling around the college football champs in recent years has been increasing dramatically. Its no longer just the SEC and Big 10 crafting a plethora of decent teams. We have Stanford, we have TCU, we have Boise State, we have West Virginia (among others) suddenly creating ripples in the competition. And until we craft a playoff that blends all these teams together, we will be stuck with an unfair system that we do not trust, and champs that we do not believe in.
I believed that the Packers, Mavericks, Bruins, and Cardinals are the champs of their leagues.
Alabama...not so much.
Let's fix this. Now.
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