That said: polls and rankings do appear to many of us to be biased in favor of the SEC. There’s no doubt the PAC-10 was weaker than the SEC this year, but saying that the greater number of SEC teams in the top 25 demonstrates the conference’s strength doesn’t quite hold water, I think. It’s akin to a college saying, “Obviously we provide the best education, as demonstrated by the fact that 50% of our grads end up millionaires,” while ignoring the fact that 45% of their student body comes into college millionares already.

I am not trying to take anything away from the Tigers, who were nothing but an exceptional team this year, and who deserve that trophy, as far as I’m concerned. However: SEC teams end up with top rankings because they start there and because, well, that’s where everyone expects them to end up: For maybe 9 of the teams in the SEC, a top-20 ranking is theirs to lose. (That said, LSU is not one of those anointed 9. They do not, in general, reap the benefits of the SEC privileged-class status. They were picked to lose every big game they played, and all they did was roll over opponents, and they still got picked to lose. LSU had as much to prove to the SEC as to the rest of the country, and they sure did it.)

I imagine you can guess which large friend of ours sent me the following BCS top-10 predictions last year:

1. Florida State: Good thing Jeb struck down Affirmative Action in this state or you might have underqualified criminals hanging around college campuses. Oh, wait.

2. Florida: Steve Spurrier said it and you’d better believe it. Best place to play football and get an education. Compared with the rest of the SEC I guess he has a point.

3. Miami: When will the violations be found?

4. Florida Atlantic: Reminds us that no team with the word “Pacific” in its school or conference name may play for or dream of playing for that big glass football.

5. Florida Southern: Southern. I like the sound of that.

6. Florida A&T: The Rattlers are simply due!

7. Jeb

8. Texas Tech & M: From these three squads will emerge one bonifide runner up in the Big 12

9. The Lady Vols of Tennessee. They always win something

10. Va Tech: Now firmly established as Penn State’s replacement as TKP (Token Yankee Program). Oh, wait.

Here’s my thought on the BCS—the money angle, as you rightly point out, makes no sense whatsoever.  A “final four” situation would produce big bucks.  The only real argument against a playoff-style season ending that has made any sense to me whatsoever is the number-of-games problem:  in order to accommodate a playoff, even just of the final four, one extra week would have be added to the season (because no college seems to want to give up a week of the regular season).  In order to do that, the season would have to roll over into the second semester.  And the college presidents are all virtuously suggesting that this would amount to an abuse of the players.

Um.  An abuse?  Of the players?

What I think this means is—and where the real money problem comes in—is if the season stretches out even one week longer, folks are going to start realizing that the players are (and I hope you’ll pardon the term) slave labor, that their bodies and their educations and sometimes even their lives are being put out there on the line week after week for what amounts to no remuneration whatsoever.  And the result might be a demand that the players get paid.  And no college football program can afford that.

So we’ll see some tweaks to the BCS rules next year (like “you have to win your conference in order to win the BCS”), but I think that’s about it.  As to the nation’s sportswriters—there’s not a one of them that’s impartial.  They’re fans—which is why they got into the business in the first place.  So if we’re going to be polling fans and making national champion-type decisions based upon the results, I think we need a more carefully selected sample…

I loved reading your play-by-play from Sunday night - it mirrors my evening in so many respects.  At the beginning my 7-mo-old was all decked out in his LSU gear, sitting on my lap watching the game (he LOVES watching football; it’s kinda scary, actually).  Anyway, it was late for him, so he pretty much fell asleep right after kickoff. But then on LSU’s first play from scrimmage, Vincent made that 64-yard run, and well, I, uh, woke him up with a bit of a start, to say the least, poor little guy.

Then in the fourth quarter I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  It was just as your sportswriter’s post said - I was thinking that they had done themselves in AGAIN.  Oh well, I thought.  Glad to be wrong for a change!

My favorite play, though, was Marcus Spears’ touchdown.  I LOVE it when defensive linemen make touchdowns.  It’s so rare, and kind of absurd, in a way; it’s delicious, really. I’ve always loved defense to begin with… it’s a bit of an affliction, I suppose.  At an LSU game a couple of years ago, I would growl whenever the Tigers would sack the Arkansas quarterback.  My wife leaned over to my sister and told her “Trent growls after sacks,” to which my sister responded “I know we’re supposed to be like sisters now, but that’s a little more information than I needed.”

But I digress - I was also proud of how many of the LSU players are from Louisiana - there were two from towns in MS and TX that border LA, and Mauck is from IN, but most of those players are from right here in our poor, too-often-maligned, humble state.

One last thought - it’s not LSU’s fault that they didn’t meet USC on the field.  The BCS is obviously a flawed system designed by Bowl folks to keep the money flowing to them (why they think a playoff wouldn’t bring them as much [or more] dough [think “Final Four"], I cannot answer), but it’s the system we have, and like it or hate it, one has to agree that it is a tad more objective than a simple poll of the nation’s sportswriters.  I would imagine, given demographics, that there are more of them on the “left coast” than in the Southeast????? 

Well, I have spent far too much time on this; I have work to do!  GEAUX TIGERS!