BCS Rankings Week 13: Why LSU vs. Arkansas Is Real Game of the Century

Forget about LSU vs. Alabama. The best game of the 2011 college football season, the game that will really decide how the BCS shakes out—the true "Game of the Century"—is Friday's Battle for the Golden Boot between Arkansas and LSU.

Sure, the latest edition of the "Saban Bowl" was exciting (or not), a veritable field goal fiesta that finished with the Tigers triumphing in overtime, 9-6.

But nobody (outside of Tuscaloosa) would mistake Bama's offense, led by AJ McCarron and Heisman Trophy contender Trent Richardson, for the best in the conference—a claim to which Tyler Wilson and Arkansas can stake themselves.

Wilson has done a wonderful job of filling in for the departed Ryan Mallett, aided all season by the Razorbacks' outstanding receiving corps. Meanwhile, Dennis Johnson, Ronnie Wingo and former USC Trojan Broderick Green have combined to do a masterful job of filling in for star running back Knile Davis, who suffered a severe ankle injury in the preseason and only recently returned to practicing with the team.

The Hogs' attack would easily be the best that Tyrann Mathieu and the Tigers D have seen since the season-opener against Oregon, which they won, 40-27. Granted, LSU will have a much easier time moving the ball against Arkansas than it did at Bryant-Denny Stadium when staring down Bama's top-ranked unit.

Then again, Jordan Jefferson and company may need to just keep pace with Bobby Petrino's prolific scheme. A more back-and-forth game wouldn't appeal quite as much to the defensive purists and LSU-Bama apologists, but it would make for a more entertaining game overall, a game that could actually live up to its considerable hype without the need for excuses afterwards.

From a rivalry standpoint, LSU-Arkansas would also bring out much more hatred and intensity than did LSU-Bama. True, the latter of those two tilts dates back further—to 1895 rather than 1901—but no one at all familiar with the Tide would dare mistake the Tigers to be their chiefest rival. That distinction, of course, belongs to Auburn, whom Bama will face in the annual Iron Bowl on Saturday.

Meanwhile, LSU and Arkansas would, at the very least, describe themselves as each other's most hated conference foe. These two schools have seen their annual druthers intensify over the last two decades, since the Hogs made the switch over from the defunct Southwest Conference to the SEC.

The introduction of the Golden Boot trophy in 1996, in honor of the combined geographical shape of the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, only added more luster to an already fiery rivalry.

And as far as the actual meaning of this year's game is concerned, it may well trump the BCS indecision that resulted from LSU-Bama. If Arkansas wins, the Tigers will likely be knocked out of the SEC championship game, paving the way for Alabama to make its third appearance in the last four years. A win for Bama against Georgia would then send the Tide on to the BCS title game to play the Hogs, whom they defeated back in September, 38-14.

However, if Bama were to lose to UGA, the SEC could very well end up with an unprecedented three teams in the BCS—Arkansas and LSU in the title game, and the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl.

And if LSU beats Arkansas and Bama beats Auburn, then we'd still likely end up with two SEC teams playing for the BCS National Championship, depending on what transpires against Georgia.

A dizzying array of possibilities, to be sure, each of which hinges much more on what happens this Friday than what took place in the Yellowhammer State on Nov. 5.

So if the "Game of the Century" is at all predicated on a particular contest's combination of all the things that make college football great—regional rivalries, conference championships, national title implications and exciting play on the gridiron—then LSU-Arkansas deserves that moniker more than any game we've been treated to this season.