J.R. Tidwell

Sports Editor

The inevitable has finally come to pass. As announced Sunday, LSU will be playing Alabama in the BCS National Championship in New Orleans.
The Tide fans will be getting the rematch they so desperately wanted, and the SEC will continue to assert its overwhelming dominance in the sport of football for a sixth straight year.
LSU already defeated Alabama once this season, so if the Tide manages the upset in the championship, it will put the teams at 1-1. How can you call one team a champion over another when they are tied?
There is no correct answer for the firestorm that would ensue if Alabama wins. There is already talk of co-champions if that happens. I have even heard that if Alabama wins a close game, LSU could still conceivably be No. 1 in the computers.
All of these problems would go away if the Bayou Bengals show up and win the game. They would be the undisputed national champ, and Alabama would return to Tuscaloosa to ponder how they were the definition of the second-best team in the country.
The 2004 season saw much of the same as far as BCS title game controversy goes. Only this time, there are not three undefeated teams, Auburn will not be left out of the championship and Oklahoma will not get massacred 55-19 by USC.
Oklahoma State could have helped matters by not losing to an unranked 6-6 Iowa State, but then again the Cowboys are definitely not better than Alabama.
This game — and this season — will go down in the books with 2004 as the two best reasons why the BCS does not work and a FBS playoff system is needed. Unfortunately, I do not think the playoff will ever happen in the upper tier.
The good thing for the BCS is that the two best teams in the country are playing for the national championship.
The bad news is that that game has already been played.

J.R. Tidwell is sports editor for The Franklin County Times. He can be reached at (256) 332-1881, ext. 31.