MITCH BLATT

After the Alabama Crimson Tide lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks in their third straight game against top twenty opponents, the question of the day was, “Where will Alabama be ranked?”

Well, now that question is settled. The new polls are out and Alabama is #8 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. The question is funny, because in fact, neither ranking matters. The question itself is irrelevant.

We know that a lot of the teams ahead of Alabama will lose, and some of those teams (four top 10 teams come from the SEC right now) will face off against each other. There is scientific proof that a number of those teams will lose. Oklahoma (#6, AP) and Nebraska (#5) will face each other in the Big 12 Championship assuming they remain undefeated in regular season play.  Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and South Carolina (spots 7-10 respectively) will continue to face their tough SEC schedules and only one will emerge as the South Eastern Conference champion. Essentially one of those teams–assuming that team has only one loss at the end of the year–will be in the position that Alabama is in now: an SEC team with one loss.

If a team finishes the regular season undefeated in a BCS conference, they essentially earn their right to play for a national championship. Though their have been some omissions. Ohio State and Oregon are in the drivers seat right now after Alabama lost their pole position. An undefeated Pac-10 champ would certainly earn the right ahead of a one-loss SEC champ in Alabama.

But the whole question of Alabama ignores the two remaining undefeated SEC teams: LSU and Auburn. Both undefeated and if either of them finishes the season perfect in the SEC, of course they should (and probably would) make the National Title Game ahead of Oregon.

Non BCS hopefuls Boise State, TCU, and, quite likely, Utah, will end the season undefeated, but a team like Boise State whose best strength-of-schedule match-up (Virginia Tech) lost to James Madison isn’t playing the same game as Alabama, which faced Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina back-to-back-to-back and still has LSU and Auburn left.

To put the SEC in perspective, whichever team wins the SEC, considering Alabama, LSU, Auburn and South Carolina are the contenders, will have played at least two of each other during the regular season and again in the championship.

Photo: Getty

MITCH BLATT

UPDATE: As I mentioned in the first version of this post: “However, Boise State is staking their season, to some degree, on how well Virginia Tech finishes the season.”

Well, now Virginia Tech lost to James Madison, so Boise State’s national title hopes might already be falling apart. If there’s a 1-loss team from the SEC or Pac-10, they would deserve the nod over Boise State, at the rate the team got a quality win over is going.

Boise State beat Virginia Tech by 3 last night, but their season isn’t over just yet. They still have previously ranked #24 Oregon State on September 25, then after that, their season might be over. Does a team whose schedule includes Wyoming, New Mexico State, Toledo, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech and Idaho deserve to play in a national championship?

I guess if they’ve gone undefeated two years in a row–with 20 starters returning–and there aren’t two more deserving undefeated teams from BCS conferences, then Boise State has earned it. We know they usually step up to the challenge of who they face. However, they are staking their season, to some degree, on how well Virginia Tech finishes the season.

As for TCU, which also finished the 2009 regular season undefeated, they just finished this season in the first week with a 30-21 win over Oregon State. Now if they can just hold on against Tennessee Tech, Colorado State, Air Force and UNLV, they will finish undefeated again, but they won’t have earned any consideration as our nation’s best team.

Sorry, TCU, but how can anyone know how good a team is if it never plays a team against which we can measure it?

Even just playing one top tier team isn’t a measure of strength when teams in BCS conferences play higher quality teams each week and have to keep it up all season. In the WAC and the Mountain West, you don’t have to play Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, and Florida all in the same season.

If Boise State is a long-term good football team, they should join the Pac-10. This year, they announced they were joining the Mountain West, but the Mountain West still has such featherweights as UNLV, Wyoming, San Diego State, New Mexico, and Colorado State.  TCU and Utah are tough, but BYU is leaving the MWC for Independence.  O and Air Force.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

TCU has an outside shot at the national championship (emphasis on outside shot).  BYU say their chances mutilated at Lavell Edwards Field against the Seminoles.  But Mountain West supremacy is at stake, and for TCU, a shot to climb closer to Boise State, which only has Oregon to thank for it’s lofty standing.  Here now is Tim Brown’s take on this crucial inter-conference showdown. (What’s his pick: hint hint, defense wins championships)…

Take it away Tim Brown.