Texas pulled out a crazy defensive slug-fest, Pitt overcame a 21 point deficit to shock West Virginia, and TCU watched all of the madness unfold presumptively on their comfy couches at home, but the question is this: who deserves to go the national title game?  Not who will.

SCOTT JACOBS

Long after Tim Tebow’s tears were wiped away, along with his Heisman hopes, Texas played against Nebraska (as a two touchdown favorite I might add) with a national championship berth on the line.  That was the assumption at least.  Afterall, the way this season had played up until that point, the stars had aligned for Texas to play the winner of the SEC Championship.  It was practically scripted.  And with Texas getting a raw deal last year at the last moment and getting jumped by an Oklahoma team that they had already beaten for the title game in South Florida, the presumption was that they would not get shut out two years in a row.

But not so fast.  After an unimpressive showcase of ineptness most of the game, Texas overcame some baffling mistakes and kicked their way to a Big 12 championship.  But just because they’re number three, and next in line after Florida lost, shouldn’t immediately mean that they should go to the championship.  Playing for a title is not a right, it’s a privilege, and the question voters should be asking themselves tonight is: does Texas deserve to play for all the Roses (and then some)?

The odds on likelihood is that they will get the nod.  The reason for this is twofold: number one, Texas is still undefeated, and number two, they got shafted last year.  But they overwhelmed no one tonight, and they’re not the only undefeated team left.

Far from it.

Cincinnati and TCU were licking their chops as Texas fell behind with less than two minutes to go.  They must have burrowed their head in nausea when the Huskers inexplicably kicked the ball out of bounds and then garnered a horse collar tackle on top of a huge gain.

Texas won.  Yes.  But barely.  McCoy almost made the gaffe of the century when he lost track of time, and heaved the ball out of bounds casually.  That’s how I feel the title game will play out.  The voters will put Texas at number 2 lazily, because that’s the easy thing to do.  Who has the guts to go with the best resume?  Who I ask who?

This is the big problem.  Texas has history, tradition, and is well recognized as a football power.  They were number two to start the year.  TCU?  They were 17th in both polls to start out.  Cincinnati?  Unranked entirely.

Look, I love polls.  I think college football isn’t the same without them. We love numbers in this nation.  We eat them up.  Numbers help make things make sense.  Numbers rile up hype, numbers give us grounds to compare things against, numbers help us determine a national champion.

It’s just unfortunate when those numbers have such bearing months and months later.

The order going into today’s games:  Texas, TCU, Cincinnati.  Nothing has changed.  The only difference is Texas actually took a step back, while TCU flew up 13 spots, and as for Cincy, well they came out of nowhere (despite being in the Orange Bowl the year before) to crash the BCS title game debate.

If you throw out numbers, and conference affiliations and all that jazz and just compare the three teams side by side, as if it was a Coke-Pepsi taste test, it’s hard to see how anyone goes with Texas.  Their wins over ranked teams:  Oklahoma State, which was shellacked and shut out at Oklahoma with a Fiesta Bowl bid on the line, and Nebraska, which snuck in at number 22, just to make them a little more imposing.

Texas has the weakest resume of those three, but again, they’re Texas.

I don’t feel like throwing numbers at you.  Look it up if you want.  But Texas shouldn’t get in because they’re Texas.  People have to have some imagination.  This was a down year for the Big12.  The Big East is given no respect, and TCU, what conference do they play in again?

I don’t know who should go to the title game.  The obvious solution is an 8 team playoff.  But there are no signs that will ever happen.  So the only P word I’ll throw out there is preposterous.  It’s preposterous that Texas should get to go the title game just because they are who they are.

It’s like that line from Knocked Up, “life doesn’t care about your plans.”  Just because Texas beat an anemic Nebraska offense by a point, doesn’t mean they should automatically move up.  Cincy won in the snow, over a top 15 team.  Texas squeaked by a team that barely attained 100 yards of total offense.  TCU’s resume speaks for itself.

But tradition is everything in college football.  It’s why the big wigs at the top were so reluctant all these years to let one of the teams outside the Big Boy table (the big 6) play in their BCS bowl games.  It’s the reason that many would object to a TCU in the national title game.  It’s the logic that explains why Boise State has to try scheduling more elite schools if they want to even crack the discussion.

Cincinnati is not only getting overlooked, they’re getting attention for all the wrong reasons.  While Brian Kelly plays hush, hush with the media about his (cough, cough) interest in the Notre Dame opening, his Bearcats find themselves undefeated and Big East champs.  Instead of fielding questions about the incredible comeback his team put together, he was sidestepping questions about South Bend.

It’s a slap in the face to an incredible year for the Cats, who do play in a power 6 conference.  But ya sure as heck woudn’t know it.  Cincy doesn’t have that tradition or those incredible alumni players who went on to big things in the NFL.  If Pitt was in their shoes, I’d argue the Panthers get a lot more love.  Why, because Pitt has that history and tradition on their side, even if it hasn’t been recently.

Alabama proved they should be in the title game with their demolition derby over the Crying Tebows, err… Florida.  They won on a neutral field in dominant fashion.  Texas did anything but.  But they’re Texas, and when we wake up tomorrow they’ll most likely be number two in the polls.  And on Fox’s BCS selection special, that little Longhorn emblem that is so synonymous with college football glory, will appear on your screen, next to the well known A of Alabama’s.

Texas-Alabama just looks good.  It sounds good.  Two historic programs with huge fan bases facing off in Pasadena?  Mmmm… delicious.  And the last time Texas went to a California bowl game, they won the national championship in one of the most exciting games ever played.  How do you go against that for a team like TCU or Cincy?  Ratings wise, Texas-Bama will score high marks.  On paper it looks like a great matchup.

Whether or not it is the right matchup for the national title, well, that’s obsolete.  It’s what we’ll be getting.  Sex sells in advertising.  Tradition sells in college football.

Life isn’t fair.  Neither is college football.

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