Why I am secretly hoping for an OSU blowout Saturday

The BCS lost any sense of credibility when the Associated Press decided several years ago it no longer wanted its poll used to help determine the BCS standings. Now two-thirds of the formula used to determine the BCS standings come from the two least credible football polls in existence — the USA Today Poll which is comprised of football coaches who never get to see a game other than their own at any point in the season, and the Harris Poll whose membership is made up of has-beens and never-weres who should not be permitted to express an opinion on any subject that requires rational judgment. (Can anyone really be as stupid as Craig James appears to be on ESPN’s BCS countdown show? But he’s typical of the Harris voter.)

The most recent AP poll has Oklahoma State ranked No. 3 as does ESPN’s Power Rankings and, mosty importantly, my rankings. (OK, that last was meant slightly in jest). However, the ignorant USA and Harris polls have OSU ranked fifth, behind a Virginia Tech team that hasn’t won one single game against a noteworthy opponent all year and was embarrassed by a Clemson squad that turned out to be all flash and no substance. That No. 5 ranking probably precludes OSU from having any chance of playing for the national title even though the objective computers rank OSU high enough that the Cowpokes are No. 3 in the overall BCS standings.

For personal reasons, I’m going to be rooting for Oklahoma Saturday, but secretly I would love to see Oklahoma State win Bedlam by four or five touchdowns — to put on such a display that even the ignoramuses at USA Today and Harris reconsider the error of their ways and bump the Cowboys up the rankings. How high? High enough so we don’t have to sit through another unbearable LSU-Alabama game.

That first meeting this year between those teams was one of the worst played, most abysmally coached, poorly quarterbacked games between two ranked teams in college football history. Some misguided fools, although none who know anything about college football, called it an epic defensive struggle. Give me a break! It took almost five quarters for LSU to score a measly nine points against Alabama while Georgia Southern scored 21 against the Tide in less than two quarters and Georgia Southern is in something called the Football Sub-Culture Division or whatever the old Division 2 is known as these days. If West Virginia could score three touchdowns against LSU, why couldn’t the great Alabama even manage one. Face it: LSU-Alabama Uno was rotten football.

And I don’t want to see it repeated in the BCS Championship game, but I’m afraid the fix is in. Not only do I not want to see a terribly played/coached/quarterbacked rematch, the BCS title game has a tradition, albeit a short one, of featuring at least one quality quarterback: Auburn’s Cam Newton earlier this year, Alabama’s Greg McElway and (almost) Texas’ Colt McCoy last year, Florida’s Tim Tebow and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford in 2009, LSU’s Matt Flynn, currently Aaron Rodgers backup in Green Bay, in 2008, Ohio State’s Troy Smith in 2007 and, of course, the best one of all, the Vince Young/Matt Leinert matchup in 2006. Neither LSU’s Jordan Jefferson nor Alabama’s A.J. McCarron are in that discussion. But OSU’s Brandon Weeden is. So is Stanford’s Andrew Luck, Houston’s Case Keenum and Boise State’s Kellen Moore. And OSU, Stanford, Houston or Boise State, playing either Alabama or LSU (I really don’t care which), would provide a far more entertaining BCS Championship game than another round of Alabama-LSU.

Please, OSU, win Bedlam big Saturday. Win big enough so even the nincompoops at USA Today and Harris can see the error of their ways. Win big enough to save mankind from an Alabama-LSU rematch.