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Friday, January 4, 2008
Should Kansas share the national championship?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-I’m not trying to stir up trouble this morning. Well, maybe I am.
But as your humble correspondent, I just gotta ask:
If LSU (11-2) beats Ohio State (11-1) in the BCS championship game Monday night, should the media members who vote in the Associated Press poll give Kansas (12-1) their national championship?
And if it happens, will the world as we know it come to an end?
Yeah, the Jayhawks played a very weak non-conference schedule (Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International) and didn’t have to play Texas or Oklahoma during the Big 12 season. Kansas is in a BCS conference and it finished the season with just one loss-to Missouri (36-28) in the regular-season finale in Kansas City.
If Ohio State beats LSU, the BCS will crown a national champion that played a non-conference schedule against I-AA Youngstown State, Akron (4-8), Washington (5-7), and Kent State (3-9). And like Kansas, Ohio State only had one smudge on its record, a 28-21 loss to Illinois AT HOME on Nov. 10.
The Jayhawks beat the No. 3 team in the nation (Virginia Tech) in the Orange Bowl and we saw what Missouri did to Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.
And for those of you keeping score at home, there seems to be the perception out there that there is ONE national championship and one only, the BCS. I get that note every now and then when I point out that Southern Cal won the 2003 AP national title while LSU was crowned by the BCS.
My LSU friends tell me there is only ONE national championship in college football and that is the BCS national championship. Well guys, I do this for a living and I never got that memo.
Understand what the BCS national championship is. It is the one that the major conferences and the television boys have thrown their weight and money behind. They decided that if they worked together, they could maximize their profits on post-season football and better focus the nation’s attention. It has worked. The ratings have been good and everybody’s making a lot of money. For all of its flaws, the BCS is an improvement on the old bowl system, where LSU and Ohio State could NEVER have played for a national title.
But college football has a long tradition of awarding more than one national championship and the AP poll has been doing it since 1936, long before the BCS was a twinkle in Roy Kramer’s eye.
Will it happen? I don’t think so. But doesn’t it make for a nice argument on a Friday morning? But wouldn’t it make for the most fitting ending to the craziest college football season ever?
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