LSU vs. Alabama: Can You Really Blame LSU for Not Showing Up to a Rematch?

Exhibit A for 2012's cry for a playoff system in college football is the Louisiana State Tigers.

Make that A, B, C and D. We'll go ahead and allow Oklahoma State to have E before coming back to LSU for F, G and H.

Think about this.

You are a team that has played a brutal schedule and has defeated everyone in front of you.

The victim list includes the Rose Bowl champion (Oregon), the Orange Bowl champion (West Virginia), the SEC East champion (Georgia), the Chick-fil-A Bowl champion (Auburn), the Gator Bowl champion (Florida) and the Music City Bowl champion (Mississippi State).

It also included Alabama, which, two months after losing 9-6 at home to the Tigers, beat them 21-0 on Monday night to deliver Nick Saban his third BCS national championship.

I'm not here to make excuses for the excuseless.

LSU did not look ready, did not look like a team that was playing for the crystal football trophy. It had 92 yards of offense and allowed 384. Previously unbeaten, it was dominated in every facet of the game by a very good, no excellent, Alabama squad.

But one has to feel a bit sorry for the Tigers, right?

After all, it would have been one thing to play the Crimson Tide one more time at the conclusion of a 16-, eight- or even four-team tournament. That happens every so often during March Madness, so who can really argue if two teams play their way to a rematch?

That said, the way the format is now, Alabama belonged in New Orleans.

The Tide are better than Oklahoma State, better than Stanford, better than Boise State and apparently, better than LSU.

But if you are the Tigers, does it stick in your craw just a little bit that you had to defeat a team twice to win it all while that same team had to beat you just once?

Again, the song is different if the game had occurred at the conclusion of a playoff.

Unfortunately, football's version of "One Shining Moment" really is just one shining moment.