BCS Rankings: Oklahoma State Deserves To Play LSU for National Championship

SEC fans! Tuscaloosans! Lend me your ears!

Or, better yet, your eyes, which would be wise to have feasted on what Oklahoma State did to Oklahoma in the Bedlam Game on Saturday night. With a dominant 44-10 win over their most hated rival, Brandon Weeden and the Cowboys didn't just clinch their first Big 12 Championship and their ninth conference title overall.

The Pokes didn't just punch their ticket to any BCS bowl game. They proved, without a doubt, that they deserve to leapfrog Alabama into No. 2 in the polls and play LSU, the champion of the SEC, for the BCS title.

Mike Gundy's Pokes and the Crimson Tide own identical 11-1 records, but that's about where the similarities end. OK State has beaten six teams in the Top 20 of Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings while 'Bama has beaten just one.

Or, if you prefer to go by the BCS rankings, you can chalk up five Top-25 victories for the Pokes compared to just two for the Tide. Either way, the edge clearly goes to the guys from Stillwater.

What's more, the Cowboys won their conference (which counts for something, right?), while the Tide did not.

As far as their lone losses are concerned, you could even argue that Oklahoma State should get more of a pass for its failings against Iowa State than Alabama should for losing to LSU. After all, the Pokes suffered their defeat on the road to a team coming off a bye while having had only a short week themselves to prepare. What's more, the entire Stillwater community had been sent into shock earlier that day with the death of women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna.

Oh, and it took the Cyclones—who aren't quite as terrible as one might expect—two overtimes to pull off the shocker.

Meanwhile, the Tide, well, they had their chance to play for the national title and a darn good one, I might add. They could've (and probably should've) beaten the Bayou Bengals at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, but their kickers, Jeremy Shelley and Cade Foster, combined to hit just two of their six field goal attempts.

And please, don't give me all this bunk about 'Bama being a better team because it plays better defense. Yes, Nick Saban's D is tougher to crack than a frozen chestnut, but it's also had the benefit of playing in a conference that doesn't exactly pride itself on stuffing stat sheets with points and yards galore.

OK State, meanwhile, has had to contend with some of the most prolific offenses in college football on a weekly basis.

And it's not like holding Oklahoma—a team that came into Saturday's action eighth in the country in scoring at 43 points per game—to just 10 points should be tossed aside because Landry Jones hasn't had Ryan Broyles to throw to and Dominique Whaley to count on out of the backfield.

Remember, folks, the Sooners were the preseason No. 1 team in the country, the team that everyone and their mother expected to play for the crystal football.

And Oklahoma State, a team that hadn't beaten OU in their yearly rivalry game since 2002, mopped the turf with 'em, made 'em look more like chumps than champs.

Meanwhile, 'Bama spent the weekend relaxing, getting their mani-pedis and waiting for the BCS powers-that-be to call its name on Sunday when the bowl matchups are "magically" unveiled in primetime. 

So step aside, Crimson Tide. You had your chance and you blew it. Heck, you didn't even win your own division, much less your own conference.

On the other hand, OK State made history, setting aside a long and torturous tradition of futility, particularly against Oklahoma, to put together its most impressive performance of the season when it counted most.

Now, the onus is on the voters to do the right thing—to cast their ballots in favor of an Oklahoma State team that's done far more than 'Bama to secure a spot opposite LSU at the Superdome in early January.

No, this isn't about putting together a game that everyone wants to see, even if LSU—OK State would be a much "sexier" matchup.

Rather, it's about putting the two best teams—nay, the two most deserving teams—on the field together to duke it out for all the marbles.

That means LSU at No. 1 and Oklahoma State at No. 2. What the voters do with Alabama is irrelevant, so long as the Tide aren't any higher than No. 3.