LJWorld.com

For the first time since the BCS held its first "national championship" game after the 1998 season, there won't be any bowl game that can realistically be portrayed as a "national championship" game.

This year's game can only be considered as giving the University of Alabama an opportunity to avenge its loss against Louisiana State University(LSU). The two schools can only play for the championship of the western division of the Southeast Conference(SEC). Alabama cannot even claim the championship of the SEC from a victory because that would require Alabama to defeat eastern division champion , the University of Georgia.

LSU cannot prove it deserves a national championship by defeating a school it has already defeated, particularly a school that mostly defeated the same schools that LSU defeated. LSU needs to defeat the champion of another conference in the championship game to prove it is the best team in the country

An Alabama victory would indicate the two schools are equal rather than that Alabama is the best because they would each have one victory over the other. A third game would be necessary to prove Alabama was the better team. In those sports in which the champion must win multiple games against the other team, the champion must win a majority of the games.

The NCAA does allow a conference runner up to play the conference champion for the national basketball championship, but only after the challenger has defeated the other teams in its bracket to get into the championship game.

The NFL allows the runner up in a division to play the division winner in a conference championship but only after the runner up has defeated two other teams. Two teams in the same division cannot play each other in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl participants must be from different conferences.

Those who suffer from the delusion that a computer or sports writers, etc can choose the best two teams ignore the fact that it isn't unusual for teams rated by writers or computers to lose to teams that are rated lower.

It's time for people to realize that the claim that a BCS bowl game is for a national championship is just a public relations gimmick. The only valid way to determine a national football champion is for teams to earn their way into a championship game by defeating other teams that aspire to be the national champion.

Determining a legitimate NCAA major college football champion wouldn't necessarily require extending the college football season longer than it is now with the phony BCS championship game. There would need to be a way to get the number of teams playing for the championship down to 8 for a 3-round tournament which could include some of the existing bowl games.

With the ongoing conference changes, the number of conferences could change in the next few years. Champions from smaller conferences could play qualifying games after the end of the season, possibly the same weekend some of the large conferences have their championship games. The extra game would provide money for the schools and their conferences.

The first round of the tournament could come just before Christmas or be part of the New Year's day bowl games. Having the first round on New Year's would be especially attractive for the Big 10 and Pac 12 because it would allow their champions to play in the Rose Bowl and still participate in a championship tournament.

The college bowl games aren't nearly as important as they used to be. Most of them are on cable because they don't attract sufficient advertising to be worth a bidding war among the broadcast networks like there is for the Super Bowl.

A true championship tournament could be as popular as the NCAA basketball tournament is. At the very least the schools participating in the tournament would make money for themselves and their conferences.