College football voters, Mike Gundy warned you. You didn’t listen.
Oklahoma State’s coach said the night before the BCS selection show that the nation had a chance to see a high-scoring game, or it could have a rematch of field goals instead.
The voters chose the rematch of field goals.
It should not have been a surprise then when ESPN gave Alabama’s holder the play of the game (the only scoring until the final minutes was field goals).
The only entertainment might have been watching OSU players, such as Markelle Martin, take shots on social media at the two SEC teams that kept the Cowboys from playing for college football’s biggest prize.
The issue with Monday night’s game wasn’t that it was boring to watch. There have been boring title games before, such as Oklahoma’s 13-2 win against Florida State in 2002.
The issue was why the game was boring—the bad quarterback display from Alabama and LSU. And because of this, no one has a clue what team deserves the honor of the best team in the country.
It’s easy to praise Alabama’s defense for a dominant performance, and it was impressive. But part of that was LSU’s Jordan Jefferson looking as if he had never even heard of the quarterback position, much less played it.
Between Jefferson and Alabama’s A.J. McCarron, I saw them throw and complete a pass further than 15 yards down field just once. Every other pass was a short check-downs or fell incomplete.
This was the national title game where the most important position on the field was supposed to resemble a champion. Instead, both quarterbacks looked like they played for this year’s Texas Longhorns.
Oklahoma State, Stanford and Boise State, the three teams with similar resumes as Alabama, have quarterbacks that complete 30-yard passes in their sleep. Yet, without a playoff, they didn’t get a chance to prove it.
The game was the blueprint of everything wrong with college football’s current format. This was an Alabama team in the regular season that didn’t win it’s conference, much less division, beat one ranked team (Arkansas) and played eight teams that didn’t have winning records.
Think about how unfair this was to LSU. The Tigers beat the Pac 12 and Big East champs, Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama the first time the teams met, and it still had to beat the Crimson Tide twice to win a national championship. Alabama, despite playing a much easier schedule, only had to beat LSU once out of two attempts.
The regular season is what makes college football arguably the most exciting sport in the country. The BCS’ slogan is even, “every game counts.”
One pathetic championship game later, the regular season became completely meaningless.
One reason voters gave Alabama a second chance instead of voting for OSU is because of the “eye-test,” where they thought the Crimson Tide looked better in the traditionally tough SEC.
The SEC had won the previous five national championships, but no one will confuse Jefferson and McCarron with legendary quarterbacks such as Tim Tebow or Cam Newton.
Gundy warned the voters, but they used the “eye-test,” and failed to look at the Cowboys’ resume.
Allow me use the “eye-test” then. Oklahoma State would have won the national championship on Monday night against either team the way Alabama and LSU’s offenses played.
Is Oklahoma State the best team in the country? I don’t know, and we will never know.
Unfortunately for players such as Martin, that chance will never come, and there will continue to be doubts every season until a playoff is created within the bowl system.