Yet again, college football voters have encountered another wonderful time of year: Deciding who gets to compete in the national championship game, and where other teams should be placed.
The season can be described as unpredictable, with seven no. 2 teams losing throughout the season, and on the final day, the top two teams lost in their respective conference championship games, making way for other teams to jump into those vacant spots atop the polls. With just one team, Hawaii(12-0), ending the season undefeated, yet ranked no. 10 in all four of the polls that determine what college goes to which bowl, the current system is flawed, to say the least. College football fans were once told a two-loss team would not be eligible to make the championship game, but it seems LSU(11-2) and voters supporting them, could look past the pair of triple overtime losses to pencil the Tigers in for the Sugar Bowl. Ohio State(11-1), who is part of one of the few conferences in division one football without a conference championship game, was idle, yet still found a way to gain a trip to New Orleans, where they will once again square off against a stronger SEC team like they did a year ago. Luckily for Jim Tressel's Buckeyes, Les Miles and LSU dont have a combination of Chris Leak and Tim Tebow as Florida did when they crushed Ohio State in last years championship game.
As for the other teams that may have got snubbed, Kansas, the only other one loss team in the nation aside from Ohio State, has to face Virginia Tech(11-2) in the Orange Bowl.
Hawaii will face Georgia(10-2) in the Sugar Bowl.
Southern California(10-2), who came on strong at the end of the season after a disappointing October, will face Illinois(9-3) in the Rose Bowl, which returns once again to the traditional Pac-10 vs Big-10 New Year's Day matchup.
Missouri(11-2), who dropped out of the top spot on the final day, will face Arkansas(8-4) in the Cotton Bowl.
West Virgina(10-2), who fell out of the second spot, will face Oklahoma(11-2) in the Fiesta Bowl.
The mindset for most of these teams is the game we are in is a great national spotlight for their university and program. Other teams might not come forward to say it, but feel they belong in the championship game, and will prove it when gameday comes.
As for the other programs who might not have had the season they desired, some of the bowl games are great preparation for next season, but many are the last stop for most of the coaching staff.
Hopefully, the voting panels will correct their mistakes of this year and years past and implement a playoff system, which now seems like the most logical thing to do, as year after year worthy teams have been snubbed. If no remedy is made, college football will have to live with the fact that regardless of how good a team does, if they play in an inferior conference or lose to a college they should have not lost to, they will be snubbed, regardless of how dominant that team was throughout the course of the season.
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