LSU vs. Alabama: Why Talk of BCS Title Game Rematch Is Absurd

On the final Saturday in October, there is a full slate of college football games perhaps worthy enough to provide an encore to last weekend’s BCS-busting madness.

Like James Spader replacing Steve Carell on The Office, no one seems to notice or care anymore.

The hype machine for next weekend’s showdown between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama has apparently kicked into overdrive, with CBS making a rare concession to move the game from its customary Saturday afternoon 3:30 EST slot into primetime. 

People are obsessively discussing this game on message boards and sports talk radio to the point where some are suggesting a re-match between the two teams for the BCS national title in New Orleans two months later.

SEC fans will argue that these are clearly the two best teams in the country, and that a one-loss school from their conference deserves to be in over an unbeaten school from another BCS league.

Oklahoma State, Clemson and Stanford are playing for third as far as they are concerned, and Armageddon would ensue should Boise State make it over a one-loss SEC school. 

Never mind the fact that outside of these two teams, the SEC is—gulp—fairly average this season (Arkansas is the only other real threat to grab a spot in the BCS this season. Sorry, South Carolina fans, but without Marcus Lattimore, you are toast.). 

Or just ignore how asinine it would be to let a team who could not win its own division into the BCS national championship game! 

I wonder how these same fans felt about getting one-loss Florida into the national title game in 2006.

After an Ohio State-Michigan season finale featuring the nation’s top two teams in a classic 42-39 thriller won by the Buckeyes, talk of a re-match was met with more venom than a GOP debate, and rightly so.   

So while it is fun to imagine the possibilities of Nick Saban and Les Miles doing battle a second time around on the Bayou, the mere thought of a re-match would render next week’s meeting in Tuscaloosa meaningless. 

Clearly, this is a special game between two very dominant teams worthy of the spotlight that has been cast upon them. 

For 60 minutes, the nation’s eyes will be glued to the duel between the Tide and the (Bengal) Tigers. 

The winner would move a step closer to punching their tickets to New Orleans, while the loser would suffer the pain much in the same vain that Oklahoma and Wisconsin are going through this week. 

But while this game is 2011’s “Game of the Century,” fans of the losing team will have to come to grips with the fact that there will not and should not be a sequel. 

And in the world of college football, that’s the way it should be.