SEC may need another miracle

The Southeast Conference has produced the last two national collegiate football champions, Florida two years ago and LSU last year. One should not forget, however, that both of those teams needed major breaks to get into the championship game. Two years ago, Florida got in because UCLA stunningly upset USC in their final regular season game. Last year, a two-loss LSU team made it to the big game only because Pittsburgh knocked off undefeated West Virginia and Oklahoma dumped undefeated Missouri at the end of the season.

Right now, the SEC has the third (Georgia), fourth (Florida) and fifth (LSU)-ranked teams in the country. But the chances of any of these teams getting to one of the top two places seem real dicey to me right now. I think USC will run the table and finish No. 1. Second-ranked Oklahoma has a tougher schedule, but if it just loses once (their toughest opponents are Texas, Texas Tech and Kansas and the latter two, in my mind, are terribly overrated) and win the Big 12 title game against another overrated team, Missouri, they could still finish ahead of the SEC teams that must battle each other and then play in a conference title game. Florida, which still has to play Georgia and LSU, has the easiest schedule, but I can't see the Gators going undefeated.

Of course, it not only depends on how many games you lose, but when you lose those games. If Oklahoma, for example, loses a regular season game and then easily handles Missouri in the conference championship game, it will finish higher in the rankings than a Florida team that could complete the regular season undefeated and then lose to, say, Auburn, in its conference title game.

What all this means is that although the SEC is, without question, the best conference in college football, it may have trouble getting a team into the BCS championship unless either USC or Oklahoma loses twice and I can't see either of those teams losing two this year.