Sports Illustrated had this article today containing all sorts of petulant whines from alleged college football fans, universally from other conferences, who are unhappy with the the rematch between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide tonight to determine the 2012 BCS champion.

This is the first example:

You and all the other talking/writing heads in the land can come up with any reason you want for us to watch the big BCS game on the 9th. I assure you I won't be watching. Hopefully, legions of fans follow suit.

-- E-mail from John Hauge in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

All I can say about this John Hauge person is that he and his ilk are utterly pathetic. Don't watch, who cares? But please, just shut up with your miserable whine. Nobody likes a loser who can't stand to see winners win.

No matter what you think about the matchup, the BCS was explicitly designed to make sure the top two teams in college football every year meet for the BCS championship, whether or not they win their division or conference. Many people think that system is flawed, and I agree with them, but the fact remains that this is the setup. Watch, don't watch, I don't care, but the right two teams are playing, and about that I am utterly certain.

Of course, others may disagree, and that's fine, but that disagreement no longer has meaning. It is done, and cannot be undone. Get over it. Millions of college football fans will watch the game to see two outstanding teams play, and a few sourpuss whiners will boycott the game because they don't like to see two teams that actually take defense seriously grind it out.

To the whiners, may the proverbial male camel drag his dangly bits through your collective morning coffees, and may it taste as sour as your dispositions. For the rest of us, this should be a treat.

For my money, college football is the best spectator sport on earth. For 14 weeks, my wife knows that she is going to get nothing out of me on Saturdays. Either I am going to a game, or I am planning to watch games on TV for stretches of up to 13 hours. Most weeks, especially when I wasn't at a UK game, I would bring a second TV into my living room so my son and I could watch an "A" and "B" game, sometimes adding "C" and "D" and toggling between all four. It is insane. Unless you follow college football for a living, however much college football you watched this year, I watched more.

I have never been a BCS hater. In fact, I enjoy the bowl system and do worry about what a playoff would do to the excitement of the regular season. I love the symmetry between college football and college basketball. While March Madness is the best three weeks in sports, college football has the most meaningful regular season. What that means for me is this: I'll watch almost any D1 college football game, regardless of rooting interest. I rarely watch a college basketball game that doesn't involve a team I like, until March rolls around, when I then watch as much as possible. I wouldn't change much about either sport.

Before you comment on the story, though, understand that I am sympathetic to the contrary arguments about the lack of a playoff. The BCS doesn't always get it right, and there is something unsatisfying about the best sport not ending its season with a winner-take-all tournament like most others.

After the jump, take a look at the one tweak I'd make in order to perfect the system.

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Yes, I still do cast an occasional SEC Power Poll ballot. In fact, I have cast them most weeks.

This week is extra special to me because I am casting a ballot that does not include a negative comment about Kentucky. In fact, I have a positive comment about the Wildcats, not necessarily because they looked good or played good football, but because they went out there under extreme adversity and beat an opponent that they hadn't defeated in 26 straight meetings, an absurd streak that is now mercifully defunct.

Of course, there remains the Florida streak which is now at Tennessean proportions, but we'll deal with that later. Follow me past the jump for the ballot.

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With the SEC regular season over and only the conference championship left to play, it looks like all of the intrigue is gone.  I've felt for some time that there would be an All-SEC National Championship game, I just had no idea that this result would basically be set in stone before this weekend.  Ironically, the one loss Alabama Crimson Tide are basically assured a spot in the title game while the undefeated LSU Tigers could theoretically play their way out of the game with a bad loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.  Some people are griping about it and claiming that its the sign of a broken system.  Hogwash.  First of all, LSU ain't losing to Georgia.  It just isn't going to happen.  Secondly, playing for your conference championship is an honor, not an obligation. 

Something else interesting is happening in the PAC-12, where my hapless alma mater the UCLA Bruins somehow managed to win the Southern Division and now plays the Oregon Ducks for the conference championship on Friday.  To put this in perspective, know that UCLA lost to the USC Trojans 50-0 on Saturday, in a game that amounted to three hours of Lane Kiffin flipping the bird. USC actually won the South but is prohibited from playing for the championship because they are a bunch of cheaters on probation. Now UCLA is likely to miss a bowl because the extra loss to Oregon will drop them to 6-7.  Yeah, in some ways that kinda sucks, but on the other hand, get over it.  Line up and play the game.  No one ever expected a 6-6 team to go to a conference championship just like no one expects an obvious #2 in the country to be sitting home on easy street on championship weekend without a game to play. 

If Oklahoma State blows out Oklahoma, the Tide are going to be sweating it a little bit.  If LSU takes care of business as I suspect it will, it won't be sweating at all.  I bet if you asked the guys on Alabama, each one of them would give up where they are now to be playing Georgia next weekend.  What's more, I bet the kids on LSU are more than happy to play another football game. 

Line 'em up, play the game. 

This week's predictions are tough because the Capital One Bowl has an interesting decision and everything else flows from there. Any one of the Arkansas Razorbacks, South Carolina Gamecocks or Georgia Bulldogs could head to Orlando.  I am going with Arkansas because they have the highest BCS ranking, played by far the hardest schedule and are the best team.  But that could end up cutting more than one way. 

One other note, it looks like tough luck for the Music City Bowl once again.  The last time Vanderbilt ended up there, it was an attendance and financial disaster.  Mississippi State could bail this situation out and accept a Music City bid, but given the choice I assume it will opt for a more convenient trip to the Liberty Bowl. 

National Championship

LSU v. Alabama

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Right now, there are a total of six teams could get to the BCS championship game, even at this late point in the season.  A lot of things have to go wrong for a lot of teams, but it could happen, and it is way complicated.

BCS Guru (aka Samuel Chi) has this post at SB Nation explaining part of the scenario.  The SEC has a complicated tiebreaker that allows for this to happen.  You can read all about it here, but I must warn you -- it is really a mental exercise to go through that thing and come out on the other side with your sanity intact.

Obviously, getting teams past Stanford (currently 4th) into the BCS title game requires LSU to lose to Arkansas, and not just by a little:

A close victory by Arkansas likely will still send LSU to the BCS title game, because that outcome should produce Alabama-LSU-Arkansas on top of the BCS Standings. Per the SEC's quirky tiebreaker, the Tigers will still win the West, though now they will have to beat Georgia to get to the BCS title rematch against Alabama. 

Now, an Arkansas blowout win will make it a bit wild. The Hogs still don't get to the SEC title game because it doesn't matter if they end up first or second in the BCS Standings; as long as LSU is third or lower, Alabama wins the division. In that case, if 'Bama beats Georgia, it will face Arkansas in the BCS title game, for a replay of its 38-14 rout on Sept. 24. If 'Bama loses, then it might be an Arkansas-LSU rematch.

The above does assume Alabama beats Auburn in the Iron Bowl, which is likely but not a slam dunk. You might wonder why the margin of victory matters, since it shows up nowhere in the SEC tie breaker scenario.  Well, read on and I'll explain.

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We are finally getting down to the nitty gritty and the SEC Bowl picture is taking shape, as are the conference races.  An All-SEC National Championship game is still very much in play, and we'll talk more about that after Oregon v. Stanford this Saturday.  Since the SEC can only have 2 team in BCS bowls regardless, that doesn't have any impact on where the other teams end up.  I've seen a couple of national sites botch the SEC picks recently. So first, I'll go over the rules.  Since the SEC is a lead pipe cinch to get 2 teams into BCS bowls, the rest of it breaks down like this.  Unless otherwise noted, the bowls can pick any 6-6 or better SEC team they wish.

1. The Capital One Bowl get the first pick after the BCS.  It must select either the remaining team with the best overall record, or a team within one game of the best overall record.

2. The Cotton and Outback Bowls pick next and in conjunction.  Both are free to pick a team from either division, but the Cotton gets dibs on its preferred team from the SEC West and the Outback preference for an Eastern team.  In other words, if both pick the same team that team's division is the deciding factor.

3. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl picks next, then the Gator. 

4. The Liberty and Music City Bowls pick simultaneously.  If both pick the same team, that team decides which bid to accept, and the other makes its next choice.

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You asked and have now received.  We college football fans wanted a little spot to chat about the huge game tonight between the Tigers and the Tide.   Chat away while we look for the true number 1 team next week.  Only one can win.  Which SEC team will emerge on top? 

This is a BYO(whatever).   We will of course virtually share what we bring because we always share.  In the meantime, just smile at the photo I chose.

If you are watching another game, someone here might want to engage in conversation about it.  Maybe. Most likely. Feel free to join in as well.  Oh, and we won today!

Week 10 of the college football season finds all the top dogs still on top, but now comes the time when some big dogs are going to get smacked down the poll.  LSU and Alabama have topped the poll, and my ballot, for six straight weeks.  The time has come, though for those two to face off.  This is the last week they will be #1 and #2 on my ballot barring a rash of top five upsets.

But that game comes later this week.  Right now, the top six on my ballot remain unchanged from last week.  You will recall that I was unconvinced that Clemson could go down to Atlanta versus Georgia Tech and come away with the victory, and that intuition both kept me from moving them higher than 7th and turned out to be correct in substance, as the Yellow Jackets handled the Tigers convincingly.

Despite Stanford's rather narrow victory at Southern Cal, I briefly flirted with moving them into the third spot, as I am now becoming convinced that a solid case can be made for them to be ahead of Oklahoma St.  My hand was stayed, though, by the reality that OSU still handled a solid Baylor team with aplomb.  They remain at #3.

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