Bayou Beatdown: LSU Dominates BCS Championship

So I guess this is the part where I say that LSU earned the National Championship last night. I guess I would say that the Tigers dominated Ohio State in every way possible in the Louisiana Superdome (aka Death Valley, Jr.) in the BCS Title Game. I guess I would say that LSU showed up to the Super College Bowl.

Yeah, I would say a lot of things, but it can all be summed up in one simple sentence: When it comes to the National Championship, the SEC is just downright better than the Big Ten.

The Florida basketball team won the crown in 2006 over Pac-10 powerhouse UCLA and started the trend of SEC dominance that is still intact after last night’s "Down South Bitch Slappin’."

Life is good in the SEC this morning. Despite Florida not making it to New Orleans to defend their crown, even they have to be happy that the Big Ten didn’t get two wins over the SEC during this bowl season.

Everyone knows my disdain for the Bayou Bengals, as shown by my Fans vs. LSU column last December. However, I am actually happy that the Tigers won last night. Yes, I know it’s shocking to all (including myself), but with LSU winning last night, it proved who is the preeminent conference in the country.

I would say the Big 12, but Oklahoma choked against West Virginia. I would say the Big East, but West Virginia choked against Pittsburgh. I would say the Pac-10, but apparently, they don’t like leaving their part of the country (i.e. Rose Bowl).

Simply put, after much thought (and lots of shots of tequila) I actually found myself going from being a quiet spectator to cheering for the SEC. It didn’t matter whether it was Florida or LSU. Honestly, both were the most talked about teams this season. Both were picked to win the SEC. To top it all off, one of them was picked to win the national championship this season. Wow, those are some good apples. So how much hell does Ohio State deserve? You be the judge.

Today is January 8, 2008. Why is this day memorable for this column? This time last January, Florida was picked to get trounced by Ohio State. When Ted Ginn, Jr. ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, everyone pretty much figured that this was the beginning of the end.

Until Florida came back and returned the favor.

The Gators methodically picked the heavily favored Buckeyes apart on the ground and through the air. As for defense, they kept Troy Smith on the ground and they hurt Ginn in the process. Despite all that, Ohio State kept trying…I think. Then again, Jim Tressel isn’t used to actually having to play for the national championship. In other words, teams usually show up, but they don’t actually display competition.

JT should have learned from that 41-14 butt whipping. And it seemed he had: Many members of that team departed, and he had to start from scratch, yet he navigated the relatively tranquil waters of the Big 10 and got Ohio State to the BCS National Championship.

But apparently, he learned nothing: His Buckeyes submitted a similarly putrid performance against LSU. Someone should have told him to lose two more games. Maybe he should have lost to Michigan. At least that way, he would have a logical excuse for not bringing the ‘A’ game to Baton Rouge.

Urban Meyer campaigned to get his Gators into last year’s game, and it’s no surprise that Les Miles did the same thing even before his Tigers took the field against Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game.   From trick conversions to putting the media on notice to calling his team "damn strong" in a memorable press conference, Miles had been anything but quiet during a turbulent season.

But before the national championship, Miles showed just how dangerous the quiet man could be. He let the action of his team on the field speak for itself. It’s amazing how things come together at the perfect time.

What’s even more amazing is the fact that a #15, Tim Tebow, polished off the Buckeyes last January, and last night, it was another #15, Matt Flynn, that picked the Buckeyes’ bones clean.

Another thing about timing is that perfection usually comes with it. When Florida beat Florida State to win the national title back in ’96, they started a trend that saw multiple SEC conference teams vying for the big bowl games.

This season, the SEC wasted little time in establishing that same dominance as the majority of their conference (Auburn, LSU, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Georgia) found themselves in bowl games. That is the most from any conference this season, and it definitely makes a legitimate argument for the SEC.

The best part of all this is LSU now has two national championships to their name. Guess those “Nick Who?” signs that I saw last night are truer this morning than they were before last night’s game. Like I said, timing is everything.

Bayou Bengals Bean Buckeyes: Just try to say that line ten times fast and see if your tongue reaches out to smack you. The purple and yellow was flying high last night, and Kobe was nowhere near Baton Rouge.

LSU silenced some critics and naysayers, but they will have to deal with the obvious problem of legitimacy as defined by computers. There are those who still feel a playoff system is necessary. And can you blame them? In the last two BCS title games, games that a computer picked, no less, the #2 team has completely dominated the #1 team. Is this not enough grounds for that? Who knows?

But what I do know is that you have to be impressed with the way that the LSU Tigers played last night. Matt Flynn was almost flawless, and the gameplan almost worked to perfection. After going down 10-0, the Tigers went on a rampage, reminiscent of last year’s game.

Les Miles and LSU had to deal with controversy involving West Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan.

(Speaking of which, here’s something for Michigan: you may have beaten Florida in the Capital One Bowl, but you lost in the Les Miles Bowl. So you had to settle for a guy that no one can figure out in Rich Rodriguez. It’s pretty obvious that he can’t win when it counts, so what makes you think that he’ll get the job done in the Big House?)

But this isn’t about Florida or Michigan. This is about the 2007 National Champions.

As I sit here and think about how this season has gone so off the wall, I remember that almost every team that has occupied the #1 and #2 spots in the polls fell a short time later. I remember that a computer cannot pick a good bowl championship game to save its life. I remember that in Office Space, the printer/fax/copier was taken out to a nice beautiful meadow, and then beaten senseless.

It’s time for a change.

So: Congratulations, LSU. Enjoy the victory because it was well earned. I am impressed with your style of play, and admire your tenacity to persevere through the animosity that they endured in the final stretch of the season.
 
You even shocked me last night, and that takes a lot to do. 

I find you guilty of decimating the Big Ten the only way the SEC knows how. Your sentence: an entire year of bragging about how you are better than Ohio State, and hopefully a trip to that beautiful meadow with the BCS Computer to bash its e-brains all over the place.

Enjoy your sentence. I’m sure there are a lot of people who already are.