Sunset Vette

LSU played Alabama this weekend. LSU’s defense played a great game. LSU’s offense – the weak part of the team coming into the season – did not. I’ve been saying from the beginning of the season that quarterback was important. It’s easy to see now, looking back over the years, that having an experienced but medium talent at QB is more valuable to a good team than having a brilliant but inexperienced person at the position. Lee may be brilliant, but he’s making too many mistakes.

For the fourth or fifth game in a row he threw a touchdown to the other team. I think one of the game announcers said it best as the game went into half-time tied 14-14. He said something like LSU’s offense was doing great, they scored 14 points for their own team, and 14 more for the other team. If not for LSU miscues, the score probably would have been 21-7 at the half. (I am crediting ‘Bama with scoring a touchdown on their first drive… the one where they fumbled into the endzone.) That could have completely changed the way the game played out.

Be that as it may, the final score was 27-21 and ‘Bama clinches the SEC West and now has a date with Florida in the SEC title game. My money (if I were a betting person) is on Florida.

In other conferences… … we saw Texas Tech blow out Oklahoma State, scoring six straight touchdowns bookended by two possessions ended with fumbles. The game wasn’t close. Texas Tech has a big test in two weeks when they travel to Oklahoma. (Tech’s last two games against high-profile opponents have been at home. We gots to have more cowbells! ) Both Tech and Oklahoma have an open date next week, so you can be sure that both coaches will be working on special tricks for the game that will likely decide the Big 12 South. If Tech wins, they’re the champ. If Oklahoma wins, then we potentially have a three-way tie for the Big 12 South title between Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech. I looked up the tie-breaker process, and it’s a bit disappointing. They take the highest rating team at the time of the championship game. That means that Oklahoma, since they lost their game first, would likely be the highest rated team. I think that stinks, frankly. It should be something more complicated like record against common opponents, margin of victory, stuff like they use in the NFL. Going with the rankings does make sense in the fact that the Big 12 wants the best possible chance to have the #1 or #2 ranked team playing for the national title game. But it penalizes a team that loses late in the season more than one that loses earlier.

Penn State… all they had to do was win three more games and they were likely headed to the BCS game. They lost. That leaves ‘Bama at the top with a host of one loss teams from BCS conferences, along with a few spoilers (Boise State and Utah) trying to crash the party. Utah, you say? Remember that’s where Urban Meyer (current coach at Florida) came from. They have talent, and they’re in the Mountain West which has been beating up on PAC 10 schools this year. Ball State is also undefeated, but not likely to crack the top ten before the big bowl game schedules are set.

I think ‘Bama stays #1 but the gap between their score and Texas Tech at #2 is going to narrow. Florida jumps over Penn State and Texas to take the #3 spot. As long as ‘Bama and Florida can run the table (and ‘Bama still has to defeat Auburn which is always a tough in-state rival game) then the SEC title game looks like a play-in for the BCS game. The same can be said for the Big 12 title game. That should make the Rose Bowl happy; they’ll get the PAC 10 and Big 10 champs since they’ll both be available.

Wouldn’t it be great if they got stuck with Ohio State again? Penn State would have to lose a second game in order for that to happen. There are three teams tied with one loss in the Big 10, but Penn State beats out Ohio State in head to head, just as Ohio State beats out Michigan State for the same reason. If Penn State suffers an emotional drop after losing to Iowa and drops one of their remaining games, then Ohio State could slip back into the title spot. Given that the Rose Bowl is often mentioned as one of the biggest hold-outs for a playoff system, I think it’s only fair that they get stuck with a rematch of USC and Ohio State for their game. What a ratings disaster that would be for them.

The Sugar has to be feeling really good about their spot. The second-place SEC team is still very likely to be rated in the top 5. The Orange is probably looking for a way to avoid having to take the ACC champion. This year the ACC has been very… competitive. One bowl prediction page I checked this morning suggests that LSU might come to the Cotton Bowl. That would be cool… I would have to see if I could get tickets.