Who Deserves It?

Let me start with Hawaii, since they seem to be getting a decent amount of support. While I appreciate that they are undefeated and think they definitely deserve a BCS berth, there's no way they should be in the national title game. I think Boise St. last year was better, and they showed that on their best day, they could beat Big-12 Champ OU. Hawaii really struggled with Washington last night at home, and that's just not good enough. Unfortunately for them, Washington has the toughest schedule this year and a bad record, leaving Hawaii with one of the worst schedules in football. They have no shot (nor will Colt win the Heisman).

I agree with J-Red that Kansas and Mizzou are both out of it. Oklahoma is the only viable Big-12 team. That having been said, the voters would have to vault them over 3 teams that won this week (VT, LSU, and USC) to get them there, and that's not going to happen. Even though Mizzou was #1, they were underdogs in the game, and were not given the kind of respect most #1's get, for good reason. Hence, Oklahoma's not going to the Championship either (try not losing to TT next time). Miami sucking also really hurt OU's computer ranking.

So that leaves Georgia, LSU, VT, and USC.

USC's schedule sounded tough and they looked great early. Now that we now how bad Nebraska, ND, and Idaho are, we need to keep things in perspective. Unlike Georgia which started low, USC has always been in the mix in spite of a very weak schedule, and they haven't been able to take advantage. I don't think they deserve it at all. Oregon (pre injuries) was clearly the better team.

Now it gets tough. Georgia played a very solid out-of-conference schedule (Troy, GT, and Okla St), and survived the SEC with only two losses. While I think there should be a rule excluding teams that don't win their own conference, there is no such rule. Georgia has won 6 in a row, and has looked good doing it.

I do not support LSU's candidacy for two reasons. First, VT is ranked higher in the BCS right now and played a higher ranked opponent this week in BC. With wins by essentially the same margin (excluding VT's late TD), LSU should not leapfrog them. Second, while it took 3 OT's to beat LSU in any game this season, they won 3 games by 7 points or less, 2 of them at home. In my opinion, just looking at the numbers, UGa is the more impressive SEC team. Do I think LSU could have been undefeated and clearly the best team in the nation? Absolutely. Did they do it? No.

VT's two losses this year are to LSU and BC, but living in ACC country, I know just how weak the ACC is. However, they played the best teams in the ACC and would have beaten them all except for the miracle comeback by Matt Ryan.

So my pick is: GEORGIA. They are the best and the hottest team in the best conference. Nobody complained last week about them being #4 in the BCS. They deserve to go and are very capable of beating Ohio St.

Final note: No team really deserves to be national champion this year. Lots of teams had a chance and none could win out. Also, I hope this year is another nail in the BCS coffin.