BCS Championship Game: Alabama's Inclusion Would Be Entirely Disgraceful

With one week remaining in college football's regular season, most pundits have reached the anticlimactic conclusion that the 2012 BCS Championship Game will feature No. 1 LSU against No. 2 Alabama.

According to most of these supposed professionals, the currently undefeated LSU Tigers have performed so well against top-class opposition this season that even a surprise defeat to No. 13 Georgia in the SEC Championship would not drop the Bayou Bengals outside of the top two in the BCS rankings.

One-loss Alabama has been similarly dominant this season. With a 9-6 overtime defeat to LSU the team's only blemish, Alabama has apparently performed well enough to earn a berth into the championship game without even winning the SEC West.

Surely I am not the only individual who doesn't entirely accept this reasoning.

LSU has played one of the most difficult schedules in recent college football history and so far has emerged unscathed. Their resume includes victories over No. 3 Oregon, No. 25 Mississippi State, No. 16 West Virginia, No. 17 Florida, No. 20 Auburn, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Arkansas. 

Should the Tigers take care of business against No. 13 Georgia, eight of their 13 victories will have come against opponents that were ranked when they took the field against the Tigers. Even an improbable loss against the Dawgs would leave mighty LSU with seven wins against ranked opponents and three wins against teams ranked in the top five of the AP Poll, a total far better than any of the one-loss teams vying for a spot in the championship game.

Conversely, Alabama has recorded only four victories against ranked teams (No. 23 Penn State, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 12 Florida and No. 24 Auburn). Of their opponents, only Penn State and Arkansas are still ranked.

Yet despite playing a significantly weaker schedule than LSU, losing to LSU at home, and thus failing to win both the SEC West and the SEC Championship, the Crimson Tide are apparently poised to benefit from this situation more than their western rivals.

While Tigers' head coach Les Miles spends this week preparing for a very physical and athletic Georgia defense that ranks in the top 10 nationally in almost all major defensive categories, Alabama head coach Nick Saban will rest his players while focusing exclusively on scheming against LSU.

For all we know, Butkus Award finalist Jarvis Jones could break Jordan Jefferson's leg while adding to his 13.5 sacks, or Tyrann Mathieu could fracture his wrist while diving out of bounds for an interception. On the other hand, Alabama's players will have a significantly lower risk of injury in a far more controlled practice environment.

In the NFL, LSU would have been granted a first-round playoff bye and at least one home playoff game. However, in accordance with the eternally warped BCS system, the No. 1 Tigers will now play Mark Richt's Bulldogs in Atlanta while No. 2 Alabama and their fans sit at home and smugly await an expected BCS Championship Game berth. 

Only by the most fortuitous of coincidences will LSU meet Alabama an hour south of Baton Rouge in New Orleans for the BCS Championship Game.

Now it seems we can only hope that the Bayou Bengals beat the Tide badly enough to dissuade voters from ever selecting a non-division champion from playing in the championship game.