LSU vs. Alabama: Why the 2012 National Championship Game Will End the BCS

There is nothing we can do about the Alabama-LSU rematch now.

It is set in stone and cannot be changed.

This article is not about who should be playing for the national championship or who deserved it more. This article is about how the BCS will meet its fate at the outcome of this game.

No matter what side wins, we all will lose.

Let's get all the facts out first. The BCS uses a combination of votes from coaches, players and computers. Already, this is a problem. Coaches can rank their teams higher than they should be and can rank other teams lower than they should be (see Nick Saban).

Two out of three isn't necessarily a bad thing. But if one of those two is unreliable and biased, then problems will arise.

Don't believe me?

What about the 2004 USC/LSU split national championship? Or the 2005 season that saw Auburn go undefeated, yet not receive a bid to the big game? Let's not forgot the 2010 season that had TCU going against Boise State, thus denying them both a chance to match up against teams deemed better than them.

You can see the problems here.

Clearly, there are only two outcomes possible for this game—either Alabama wins or LSU wins.

Both mean the downfall of the BCS.

Let's say Alabama wins. Alright, they got their rematch and won. Are they justified? Not really, because they were beaten by LSU at home. If they beat LSU at a neutral site, what exactly does it prove? They had all the advantages in the first place, so they shouldn't be awarded the national championship after a win in the title game.

All they did was split the season with LSU.

This could result in a split national championship.

Having two national champions again will certainly upset the voters. The BCS was specifically put in place so that there would be no doubt as to who the best team in the country is. If the title is split again, the clamor to end the BCS would only get louder.

Now let's say LSU wins.

They would be true national champions, having gone undefeated and beating the number two team twice. Sure, there would be closure as to who the true national champion is, but, once again, the BCS will come under fire. We will have watched the same game twice. All we got would be a rematch of a game we saw earlier and we already knew what would be the outcome.

If this happens, even more people will start to criticize the BCS.

Teams that also had one loss and hadn't faced LSU would get upset. In the end, people will be wondering "What would have happened if (name a team) had faced LSU and Alabama hadn't?".

People will still be upset.

I truly think this is the end of the BCS. People will be looking for a more effective way to decide who gets to be in the championship and who doesn't. There will only be one winner—the team who wins.

Everybody else loses.