Can Nebraska Run the Table and Get a National Title Bid?

As crazy as it sounds, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are now sitting in the catbird seat of the Big 12—a conference that over the past decade has occupied a spot in the national title game a solid seven times.

As for reference, those seven times include:

• 2000—Oklahoma vs. Florida State: OU took home the title with a brilliant defensive effort.

• 2001—Nebraska vs. Miami: Huskers were embarrassed by one of the best teams in college football history in a game they should have never gotten the chance to play in...

• 2003—Oklahoma vs. LSU: The Sooners, after getting whipped in the Big 12 Championship game, somehow snuck into the championship game against LSU.  Like the Huskers, they didn't deserve the chance.

• 2004—Oklahoma vs. USC: Sooners were taken to the woodshed by a much more physical and much better team from USC. 

• 2005—Texas vs USC: Maybe the greatest BCS Championship game of all, which includes the 2002 Ohio State victory over a heavily favored Miami.

• 2008—Oklahoma vs. Florida: Sooners made too many mistakes to overcome the will and determination of the Tebow-led Gators.

• 2009—Texas vs. Alabama: Would it have been a different outcome if McCoy could have played more than a series? 

Looking back at these games, the Big 12 has been offered a lot more opportunities to win it all than the conference has actually "earned."  It received more opportunities than any other conference, including the mighty SEC. 

The SEC has only been offered the opportunity to play in the championship game five times—each time ending in a crowning glory for their conference champion.

Now the Huskers are navigating their way through the calm waters of the often-chastised Big 12 North, an AQ BCS conference division in college football that is as bad as any BCS conference division in all the land. 

Sure, Missouri has a good squad this year, but let's be honest here, nobody in the country really gives Missouri any kind of respect.  A team without a conference championship, much less a BCS bowl win dating back to 1969, shouldn't demand anybody's national respect any time soon.

And if you believe the Huskers win over a good, but not great, Oklahoma State team on the road earns respect, then you are sadly mistaken. 

The Cowboys have played in one BCS bowl game (Fiesta Bowl) dating back to 1975, when that bowl game was just getting its feet underneath itself and was nowhere close to being as respected as it is now.

While the Big 10 has been ragged on over the past couple of years as being the most "overrated" conference in all of college football, that argument can easily be cast upon the Big 12 over the past decade.

Being given more chances than any other league in the past decade to win a national title has only amounted to two crystal footballs sitting in Big 12 trophy cases.  And more times than not, the Big 12 representative has proved that they have been unworthy of even being a part of the contest.

So...

If the Huskers run the table in the regular season, win the Big 12 Championship game and end up at 12-1, do they really deserve a shot at the national title?

Likely not, even if the rest of the country's top-ranked teams completely implode over the next several weeks.

The Huskers had their chance in one of the biggest "payback" games in recent memory against Texas earlier this season. 

Not only did they not produce a victory, but were shut down at home against a team that now stands with a pedestrian 4-4 record this season.

I'm giving a simple plea to voters around the country to not give my Huskers a chance to play in the national title game this year.  Because, quite simply, they have not earned that chance even if they run the table.

If it comes down to Oregon or Auburn or Alabama versus Boise State, TCU or Utah, let these much more deserving teams scrap it out.  And if push comes to shove, let an SEC team play against anybody because the champion of that conference has more than proved its worthiness to be involved in that contest.

Let my beloved Huskers play in the Fiesta Bowl, a bowl game that we might actually win.  As it stands now, we have bigger and better things on the horizon that don't need to get interrupted by another blowout loss in the national title game.

There are six teams currently ranked in front of my Huskers in the BCS rankings that deserve the shot more than another Big 12 team likely to get embarrassed on national television once again in the biggest game of the entire year.