2012 BCS Championship: Why the Big Ten Should Cheer for Alabama

Bowl season has been finished for nearly a week in Big Ten country, and the conference had a disappointing 4-6 finish in the record 10 games.

With two SEC teams playing for the crystal football on Monday night, one might think that the fans and teams in Big Ten country should not care who wins the sixth straight national title in the SEC. However, that assumption would be sorely mistaken.

The Big Ten and other conferences actually have a lot on the line when LSU and Alabama take the field. This game will be a referendum on SEC football as well as the right to a rematch in the National Championship.

As such, the Big Ten should put on their best crimson outfits tomorrow and cheer for the Crimson Tide to upset LSU and take home the title. There are a number of reasons why Alabama needs to win this game for the Big Ten conference.

No. 1: Alabama Actually Plays the Big Ten in Non-Conference Games

Non-conference scheduling goes in cycles for most schools, but one constant is that most SEC teams (including LSU) play a lot of cupcakes on an annual basis. However, LSU played a highly difficult non-conference slate this season that included West Virginia and Oregon, which prepared them for the dream 13-0 season.

Despite this tough schedule, LSU does not schedule Big Ten opponents in non-conference play, much like many of their conference foes. Thus, the Big Ten does not receive any opportunity to knock off a defending national champion when LSU wins it all.

In contrast, Alabama scheduled a home-and-home with Penn State the past two seasons, which was only downgraded because Penn State did not have a couple of its better teams in 2010 and 2011. Alabama will also open next season against Michigan at Cowboys Stadium in a huge neutral site game, and then will play a home-and-home with Michigan State in 2016 and 2017.

Thus, not only does Alabama give the Big Ten a chance at some redemption generally against the SEC, the Crimson Tide will have a tough game against one of the best Big Ten teams to open the 2012 season. What better opportunity to knock off a national champion than in Week 1 of a season?

Alabama winning this BCS Championship makes the biggest non-conference game on the Big Ten schedule next season even more important.

No. 2: Alabama Winning Will Create Chaos Nobody Will Want to See Again

In the 13-year BCS era, never has there been a rematch of a regular season game in the BCS Championship. The last rematch came in 1996, when Florida exacted revenge for a road loss at Florida State in the Sugar Bowl 52-20 to win the national championship.

There have certainly been opportunities for a rematch, such as when No. 1 Ohio State barely knocked off No. 2 Michigan at home in 2006. But the current streak of five SEC national championships owes a lot to the voters who revolted and found a rematch unpalatable that year, thereby putting Florida in over Michigan.

Just like 2006, the voters revolted again against a rematch this season, but this time the candidates to replace Alabama all had serious resume flaws. Consequently, Oklahoma State fell just short of surpassing Alabama in the final BCS Standings and a rematch was born.

If LSU wins again, then there will be little doubt that the Bayou Bengals deserve the crystal football. But if Alabama wins, a legitimate argument could be made that LSU or Oklahoma State is more deserving than the Crimson Tide with all teams sitting at one loss.

The Tigers and Cowboys played tougher schedules overall and did not lose at home like Alabama did. Especially in the case of LSU, who won on Alabama's home field, a 1-1 split will not be convincing evidence that Alabama should be the national champion.

That result will likely prevent any rematches in the BCS Championship from happening ever again, and may even cause the SEC to lose most of the benefit of the doubt the conference receives right now. The Big Ten and the Big 12 are best positioned to take advantage if that happens, so the Big Ten must cheer for the controversial outcome.

No. 3: The Big Ten Roots are Stronger with Nick Saban

Oddly enough, both coaches in the BCS Championship have significant roots in the Big Ten conference and more specifically, in the state of Michigan.

Les Miles played football at Michigan and coached under Bo Schembechler for 10 seasons. However, Miles spurned the opportunity to come home to coach the Wolverines when the program needed him most following the retirement of Lloyd Carr.

Although times are good once again in Ann Arbor, a good portion of the Michigan fan base has not forgiven Miles for leaving them in the cold, which led to the awful Rich Rodriguez era. Miles will always be a "Michigan man" because of where he graduated from, but he showed there are some serious limits to his ties to the Big Ten.

Meanwhile, Nick Saban also coached 10 years in the Big Ten, five of these as head coach at Michigan State. Before Saban won national titles at LSU and at Alabama, he led the Spartans from a mostly poor previous decade to four bowl games in five seasons. A few seasons later, Mark Dantonio took over a football program in a much better position thanks to Saban.

In addition, Saban has shown his ties to Big Ten country by asking his athletic department to schedule some Big Ten non-conference games, including the upcoming three against Michigan schools. Although Saban also probably would not come back north to coach, he at least made a huge difference as the head coach of a Big Ten program, which is more than what Les Miles has done.

So when the Tigers and the Crimson Tide kick off the rematch Monday night, Big Ten fans should unite to cheer for the second Alabama national title in three years. An Alabama win is just simply better for the future of the Big Ten, despite the immediate mess it creates for college football fans.

So on behalf of the entire Big Ten, I say: if we must cheer for an SEC team on Monday, go Crimson Tide!