BCS Bowl Picks: LSU Will Roll over Alabama to Win National Championship

The Game of the Century seems like ancient history at this point, but the lessons we learned from the first meeting between Alabama and LSU are still fresh.

Come Monday, we're finally going to see if anything has changed. After more than a month away from the gridiron, Alabama and LSU will play for the BCS National Championship.

It's about freakin' time.

For that matter, it's about freakin' time I made a pick for this game. I've been avoiding it for much too long, primarily because I knew there was no hurry.

So without further ado, here's my pick: LSU.

Phew...

Okay, let's talk about this.

Picking LSU is pretty easy in part because the Tigers won their first meeting with the Crimson Tide. Alabama pushed and pushed and pushed, but LSU kept finding ways to avoid trouble and ultimately won in overtime by the final of 9-6. The fact that the Tigers won in Tuscaloosa made the win that much more impressive.

The title game, on the other hand, will be a virtual home game for the Tigers. The Superdome is a mere stone's throw away from Baton Rouge, and you can rest assured that the LSU faithful is going to be out in force.

But beyond the here-there-everywhere aspect of this matchup, the main reason I'm picking the Tigers is simply because they have a better team.

Yup. Take a look up and down LSU's roster, and you'll find very few weaknesses. They also bring plenty of balance to the table on both offense and defense.

Offensively, I'm looking for LSU to get a big boost from having Jordan Jefferson under center for all four quarters. You can't praise him enough for the way in which he rescued the Tigers from Jarrett Lee back on Nov. 5, and the Tigers' offense is more dangerous with him under center than it is with Lee.

This is because Jefferson doesn't have the same tendency to turn the football over as Lee, but it's also because he is more apt to use his legs to make plays. That's going to come in handy when players like Courtney Upshaw are bearing down on him. We're also going to see Jefferson take it and keep it on zone reads and the like.

I also dig LSU's rushing attack, which has the luxury of having two talented running backs in Michael Ford and Spencer Ware. Given the amount of physical punishment this game is going to involve, being able to alternate between the two of them will be better than relying on one of them.

This, of course, would be a subtle shot on Alabama's reliance on Trent Richardson. He's an amazing player and he hasn't gotten the credit he deserves for the way he played against LSU the first time around, but the truth is that he's really all Alabama has. If the Tide is to generate any offense against LSU, they need Richardson to be even better than he was against LSU in the Game of the Century.

Either that, or they'll need AJ McCarron to step up his game. The trouble is that McCarron is what he is, and he's not a great quarterback. At best he is average, and one fears for average quarterbacks going up against a secondary that includes Morris Claiborne and Tyrann Mathieu.

Speaking of the Honey Badger, one also gets the sense that he's going to be heard from in this game. He could come up with a big play on defense, but my money is on him making a play on special teams. He's equally dangerous in both roles.

Whether they're made by Honey Badger or not, this game is going to come down to big plays. While I don't think we're going to see another field goal festival (perish the thought), we are going to see another hard-fought game that will be turned by a small number of key plays.

The Tigers have more athletes capable of making plays. Plain and simple. That's how they're built, whereas Alabama is built for trench warfare and drawn-out, bone-crushing games.

LSU beat Alabama at its own game back in November. This time around, the game will be more to the Tigers' liking. 

They'll win again.

LSU 20, Alabama 15