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Monday, January 5, 2009
By Friday, four teams could lay claim to national championship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 2008 college football season comes to close Thursday night when No. 1 Oklahoma (12-1) meets No. 2 Florida (12-1) for the BCS national championship. For a lot of people, that game in Dolphin Stadium will settle the question of which team is No. 1.
But come Friday morning we could have as many as four teams with a claim to at least a share of the national championship. Here is the case for each team. If you were a voter in the final polls, which team would you choose?
Oklahoma-Florida winner: The Big 12 and the SEC were the two strongest conferences all season (I’ll admit that there is some debate about the SEC) and these are the two champions who prevailed from those leagues. Florida’s loss was by one point to Ole Miss (31-30) and the Gators will have beaten two No. 1 teams (Alabama, Oklahoma) since Dec. 6. Oklahoma’s only loss was to Texas (45-35) on a neutral site and it will have beaten the SEC champion. Both of these teams were playing lights out at the end of the season and should give us a pretty compelling BCS championship game. But will the winner of this game be the best team in the country?
Texas (11-1): The No. 3 Longhorns have only one loss, which came at Texas Tech when the Red Raiders scored with one second left to win 39-33 in Lubbock on Nov. 1. Texas beat No. 1 Oklahoma head to head on a neutral field. If the Longhorns win convincingly tonight against No. 10 Ohio State (10-2) in the Fiesta Bowl, and if Oklahoma beats Florida, Texas will make its case for the Associated Press national championship. The 65 media members of the AP Poll are not obligated to vote for the winner of the BCS championship game. The voters in the coaches poll, by rule, must support the BCS winner. Of the 65 voters in the AP Poll, 50 voted for Florida in the last poll. If Florida loses those votes have to go somewhere. Does Texas get the sympathy vote because the BCS standings were also used to decide the Big 12 South title, thus knocking the Longhorns out of their shot to play for the big prize?
Southern Cal (12-1): Trojans coach Pete Carroll was pretty emphatic on New Year’s Day after his team jumped out to a 31-7 lead and trounced Penn State in the Rose Bowl. If you’re going to look at a one-loss team for the AP championship, why not us? USC lost to Oregon State (9-4) back on Sept. 25 and never could seem to get back in the mix. But after that loss nobody but Arizona (17-10) got close to the Trojans the rest of the season. In 2003 Southern Cal was No. 1 in the human polls but got squeezed out of the BCS championship game by the computers. The AP gave the Trojans their national championship and LSU won the BCS championship. Could they do it again?
Utah (13-0): As the only undefeated team in Division I-A, the Utes can make a very compelling case that if anybody is going to share the national championship, it should be them. It’s a pretty strong resume. Utah went on the road and beat Michigan (25-23) in its opener. The Utes won at Air Force (8-5). They beat Oregon State (31-28), the only team that beat Southern Cal. They beat TCU (11-2), a team that will finish in the final top ten. TCU’s only other loss was to No. 1 Oklahoma. And finally, Utah played No. 4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and won 31-17. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham is obligated to vote for the winner of the BCS championship game in the final poll. He’s not going to do it. He’s voting for his Utes. Good for him.
Again, if you were a voter in the final polls, which of these teams would you pick and why?
