It’s getting to be crunch time in the world of college football, which means the time for BCS national championship contenders to boost their resumes and slide into the title game is becoming thin.  At this point, it looks like Oregon and Alabama are the favorites to match up in the championship game.  Oregon has just been blowing everyone out of the water week in and week out.  I haven’t seen an offense as explosive or fun to watch as Oregon in a long time.  And you think that there will be that one week where their offense will stumble and only score 30 points, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.  I honestly feel sorry for their remaining opponents.

Alabama does have one loss on the season, but if they can beat No. 12 LSU and No. 3 Auburn they will almost surely appear in the title game.  This is the advantage teams like Alabama has over Boise State, TCU and even Utah.  These teams can afford to stumble because they HAVE to play the best teams in the country on a weekly basis.  They don’t get the luxury of playing inferior competition every week with a tough opponent or a road test thrown in for style points.  And that’s not a knock on Boise State, TCU or Utah, it’s just the reality of the situation.  All three of these teams could give the top teams in the country one hell of a game.  That’s right, ONE game.  I still think if you put any three of those teams in the SEC or even the Big Ten, they are two or three loss teams and aren’t even considered as participants in the national title game.

So, what am I actually trying to say here?  I’m saying that despite how much everyone loves and obsesses over the idea of a playoff system, we don’t need it because this year’s BCS national championship game, just like all the ones before it, will be a matchup between the two BEST overall teams in the nation.  To me, the two best teams in the nation are the ones who endured the unforgiving schedule, played against the best talent on a weekly basis, traveled to the toughest stadiums and played in front of the most raucous crowds in the nation.  These teams are not Boise State, TCU or Utah.  You don’t get to call yourself the best team in the country by playing one or two so-called “tough” games a season.  That’s not saying that any of these three teams couldn’t beat an Alabama, Oregon or Auburn on any given day, because it’s very likely that they could.  But they aren’t proving themselves like the other teams who play against better competition are.  That all being said, I don’t see a situation where the “little guys” (Boise State, TCU, Utah) get a shot at playing in the national title game, which is solely based on the remaining regular season schedule.  But we’ll surely find out in the coming weeks if those little guys can prove me wrong.

Submitted by Steve Giles