Many football fans are questioning how LSU ended up in the BCS title game. But they are asking the wrong question: Just what the heck is Ohio State doing in the National Championship game?
I'm serious. Ignore the ratings for a moment. Why Ohio State? Seriously. Their out-of-conference schedule? 4-9 Washington, 4-8 Akron, 3-9 Kent State, and 1-AA Youngstown State. The Big Ten is the worst of the BCS conferences. The Buckeye's best win is against 8-4 Michigan.
That gets you into the BCS title game? Puhhhhllleeeaze.
LSU belongs there. Two losses in triple overtime? Who should they play? I'll throw a few candidates out there.
Virginia Tech. Pros: Only losses were to LSU and a then-top 10 Boston College. Cons: Lost badly to LSU.
Oklahoma. Pros: 2-0 against top 10; 3-1 against top 30. One loss occured when their starting QB was out of the game.
Georgia. Why not?
Let's be honest here. It's time to put strength of schedule back into the BCS at a bare minimum. As currently written, it only encourages teams to schedule cupcakes. It doesn't matter who you beat, just win. See Kansas. Some people want to point to Hawaii as well, but Hawaii didn't really want to schedule cupcakes. They just scheduled whomever they could. Michigan State weaseled out on a commitment to play in Honolulu.
Better yet...it's time to dump the BCS and start the 1-A playoffs this weekend. Go ahead and use the BCS standings to seed everybody... here's what you get for this weekend's games:
Kansas @ Ohio State
Southern Cal @ LSU
Missouri @ Virginia Tech
Georgia @ Oklahoma
Next week, the semi-finals have the KU/OSU winner playing the USC/LSU winner and the MU/VT winner playing the UGa/OU winner. Certainly looks a lot more compelling than what we got in the BCS this season.