BCS Rankings: Why Alabama Crimson Tide Deserve Shot at National Championship

You might have scratched a hole in your scalp after watching LSU top Alabama in overtime, 9-6, and then seeing the Crimson Tide check in at No. 3 in the BCS rankings.

If the college football regular season is supposed to be a playoff from week to week, then how in the wide world of sports can the Crimson Tide possibly be so close to playing for the national championship, even if they don't win their own division in the SEC?

A good question, one to which there is a fairly simple answer: because 'Bama is still the best team in the country.

But...but...doesn't a loss to LSU mean that the Tigers, not the Tide, are the best that college football has to offer?

Not necessarily, though after watching both teams struggle to do anything other than attempt field goals (albeit against great defenses), there may be some question as to whether either team deserves that mantle.

But I digress. Amidst all the hoopla about winners and losers and what the result meant in the grand scheme of things, it's all too easy to forget that Nick Saban's squad probably should've emerged victorious, that 'Bama was the better team, despite being on the losing end.

Unless, of course, anyone thinks that a team should be judged solely on the ability (or lack thereof) of its kickers to make field goals. The Tide had twice as many concrete scoring opportunities as the Tigers, but were failed by two different kickers on four separate occasion—three times by Cade Foster and once by Jeremy Shelley.

That might as well be the definition of a fluke loss.

While that may sound like whining, the real whiners are those who think 'Bama doesn't deserve a shot at the national title. The Tide may not have clearly outplayed the Tigers, but they certainly looked like the better team overall, however marginally.

And for that, for playing a top-flight team like LSU as well as anyone has and probably will this season, 'Bama has earned the right to be next in line for a trip to New Orleans if No. 2 Oklahoma State falters.

Frankly, had 'Bama won and LSU lost, we'd probably be having all the same conversations about the Tigers and whether or not they still belong in the conversation. Heck, Les Miles' boys might still be sitting pretty at No. 2 if they'd picked up the blemish in the loss column, thanks in no small part to that season-opening win over No. 7 Oregon.

Which, considering how close that game was and how much of a crapshoot it turned out to be in the end, is precisely why Alabama is still No. 3 in the BCS and has every right to be.

Rank	Team	BCS Average
1	LSU	.9931
2	Oklahoma State	.9447
3	Alabama	.8836
4	Stanford	.8749
5	Boise State	.8473
6	Oklahoma	.7978
7	Oregon	.7708
8	Arkansas	.7452
9	Clemson	.6435
10	Virginia Tech	.5913
11	Houston	.551
12	Penn State	.484
13	South Carolina	.453
14	Kansas State	.381
15	Georgia	.370
16	Texas	.366
17	Michigan State	.337
18	Wisconsin	.305
19	Nebraska	.279
20	Auburn	.210
21	Georgia Tech	.209
22	Southern Mississippi	.204
23	Cincinnati	.187
24	Michigan	.177
25	Baylor	.071