I don't have much problem with the current ranking system. You have to have SOME sort of ranking in order to determine contenders. I do agree that a playoff should come out of it, though. Top 10-12 teams at the end of the season, regardless of conference saturation. If, at the end of the season (post-conference championship games), there is a unanimous #1 (as there was with LSU this season), then they are automatically in the Big Game, and everyone else is fighting for the #2 spot to join them. If the #1 team is not unanimous, they enter the playoff brackets, as well. There will be no coaches' poll or input on rankings from current D-1A (whatever they call it now) coaching staff.
I do not agree with #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #4, etc... I think that teams #3-#12 (or 10 if unanimous #1) should be randomly bracketed, with #1 and #2 in opposite brackets. What's the sense of having the two current best teams play in the first round, automatically knocking one of them out? Then, it's a case of "#1/#2 against the best of the rest". If an underdog can knock off the top seed in the bracket, then more power to 'em, and that's why we play the game. Knocking out one of the top two contenders by default the first week basically sets it up as the Underdog Opportunity Show. It just makes no sense to get rid of a top-two team artificially, right off the bat.
As for LSU in this game, there was a reason they were the first unanimous .1000 team at the end of the season. Can't explain what happened on Monday night, but as of Sunday evening, they were without a doubt the best team in college football... possibly ever. They just failed to show up to the Championship game, and Alabama capitalized big time. I still think that Alabama and LSU were the two best teams in college football at the end of the regular season. They deserved to play each other for the championship, regardless of whether they already played, or not. Alabama didn't win the conference, because they did not have the opportunity to play for it because they lost one game, in overtime, to the #1 team in the nation who eventually went on to play for the SEC championship. Had they lost to almost any other team, it wouldn't be the case. Just happens that one loss was within the division and the team that beat them went undefeated. It's not like they blew 21 points and lost to an unranked team even when they had two overtime opportunities to do so, or anything...
Ouch.
I agree. Bring a playoff. Congrats to the winners in the pick'em. Glad I didn't participate, because I was wrong with most of my personal picks.
I have NEVER been that close in a college bowl bracket before... ohh well, congrats to Bama as they kicked some butt!! Probably one od the wirst showings I have seen in a championship game, One of those teams did not deserve to be there.
