LSU vs. Alabama: Result of BCS Title Game Won't Quell Controversy

Depending on what happens and who you ask, the 2012 BCS National Championship Game between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide could either settle everything or nothing at all.

First and foremost, there's the issue of the Associated Press voters. According to ESPN, there's a strong possibility that the AP will crown the Tigers as national champions, win or lose on Monday.

Of course, that depends largely on how impressively the Crimson Tide come away with the win if they do, in fact, manage to exact retribution for the 9-6 overtime loss they suffered at home in the "Game of the Century" on November 5th.

The third-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, who defeated fourth-ranked Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl and, in the minds of many, should be preparing to play LSU at the Superdome on Monday, could also be in play, again depending on the result of the BCS title game.

Frankly, it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise that the AP would be so willing to go rogue in naming a national champion.

The AP recused itself from the BCS rankings after the 2004 season, when Oklahoma got the nod to play USC for the BCS title over fellow undefeated teams Auburn and Utah, while Texas trumped Cal for the Rose Bowl berth left vacant by the Trojans' trip to Miami.

This is just one year removed from the AP naming SC as its champion and the BCS crowning LSU amidst yet another controversy.

So, realistically, the idea of a split national title is nothing new, even in the BCS era. Whether it even matters anymore now that the AP Poll has no bearing on the crystal football, is in the eye of the beholding fans—among whom the upcoming BCS title game currently carries less excitement, less enthusiasm and less buzz than ever before.

Because when it comes down to it, we've already seen this song and dance before. These two teams played two months ago. The SEC Championship was decided in early December. The bulk of America that doesn't live in the Deep South has had its fill of the SEC and its pride in playing ugly, bruising but nonetheless effective football.

The controversy for college football fans, then, has less to do with crowning champions and putting the two best teams together (which LSU and 'Bama arguably are), and more to do with staging a game that's both entertaining and meaningful, that's worthy of deciding the national champion.

The real controversy, as it happens, is that there isn't still a playoff system of some sort in place to decide the champion.

The real controversy is that college football is the only major American sport that obsesses so relentlessly over handing the title to the best team rather than allowing a group of worthy contenders to play it out on the field.

But if the general disinterest among fans isn't enough impetus to create a new system, then certainly the AP should be applauded for doing what it can to push for a new world order, media objectivity be damned.

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