LSU vs West Virginia: Should the Bayou Bengals Be Ranked No. 1?

It's certainly a great debate in the world of college football with Top 10 undefeated teams in Oklahoma, Alabama, Boise State, Wisconsin, Stanford, Oklahoma State, South Carolina and Nebraska.

However, of those schools, only Oklahoma and Alabama may stick out as much or more than LSU.

That being said, are the Bayou Bengals the country's No. 1 team despite not being ranked at the top?

And should they be ranked as such, through four weeks of college football?

Yes. Yes, they should, and here's why.

In Week 1, they dominated the then-ranked No. 3 Oregon Ducks 40-27, but were actually up 40-20 with less than 30 seconds remaining, so really it was a 20 point win, not 13.

Two weeks later, the Tigers went on the road to then-ranked No. 25 Mississippi State—a tough, underrated place to play—and managed to win 19-6.

The win bumped them up to 3-0 and gave them two wins basically on the road against two Top 25 schools.

Now in Week 4, the Bayou Bengals made the trip up to Morgantown, WV and impressively beat the No. 16-ranked Mountaineers 47-21.

Thing is, they're doing all this without their 2010 starting QB in Jordan Jefferson, and they lost CB Patrick Peterson, RB Stevan Ridley and LB Kelvin Sheppard to the NFL.

Yes, SEC West rival Alabama is also a ridiculously loaded team, and their 38-14 thwomping of No. 12-ranked Arkansas was jaw-dropping, despite being expected.

As for the actual No. 1 school Oklahoma, the Sooners struggled against a Florida State Seminoles team that was slightly overrated to begin with.

Also, they began slow against a very inferior Missouri team this week, a game that LSU would have owned from beginning to end.

The Bayou Bengals' only home game came against Northwestern State, so really all their wins came on the road against ranked opponents.

Thus far the Tigers have been the most impressive team, and some may argue their early November game in Tuscaloosa, AL against the Crimson Tide is the real national championship game.

Nonetheless, right now head coach Les Miles and his LSU Tigers have played as the nation's best team, and they are very deserving to be ranked No. 1, even if it means leap-frogging Alabama and Oklahoma in the polls.

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