When I heard college football was finally getting its head out its ass and doing what it should’ve done 14 years ago by officially committing to a four-team playoff system, I wondered, “What would the BCS era have been like if we never had the BCS?” Sure, juggernauts like 2001 Miami and 2005 Texas probably would have won the title anyway, but there were years when the national championship game might have looked different.

Why Stanford: Oregon beat Stanford, but the Ducks were left sitting in the fetal position in the shower after what LSU did to them in the opening game.

As for Boise State, unless the smurfs go undefeated, they have absolutely no chance of ever making a playoff until they decide to play more than one difficult game a year.

Stanford gets the call because with quarterback Andrew Luck, they were probably the only team that could be included with a legitimate shot.

Results: I’d still pick LSU’s overall athleticism to push them past Stanford even with the “non-existent” off-the-field issues, and ’Bama would easily crush Oklahoma State.

The national title game depends on whether a playoff game may have diverted some of the mental issues for the Tigers.

If the Tigers play the way they had the whole season, no one could touch them. However, if they play the way they played in the national championship, Girl Scout troop 119 could tackle them to the ground and beat them until Tyrann Mathieu screams
“Do-Si-Do.”

However, locker room fights still wouldn’t negate the overconfidence LSU had heading into a rematch with Alabama and the motivation the Crimson Tide had to get revenge.

Unfortunately for Tiger fans, even with a playoff, the Tide rolls in New Orleans.

Why Cincinnati: Anyone who honestly believes Florida wasn’t the third best team in the nation that year, even with a late-season blowout loss to Alabama, should drink a bottle of turpentine.

As for Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State, any one of these teams silly enough to take on Alabama would be trampled like Mufasa under a herd of wildebeests. But all three teams easily defeated every worthless opponent they faced in the regular season and felt they “deserved” a title shot.

I picked the Bearcats because at least they won the Big East and beat West Virginia and an almost-decent Pitt team in the regular season.

Results: The senior quarterback battle between Florida’s Tim Tebow and Texas’ Colt McCoy goes down as one of the most epic battles in college football history, with neither QB backing down. In the end, Florida’s Brandon Spikes stomps on McCoy’s face to squeak by the Longhorns.

I know Alabama crushed Florida in the SEC championship game, and it’s hard to picture that particular Nick Saban team making a mistake, but it may be even harder to picture Tebow losing twice to the same team, especially with a healthy Percy Harvin in the rematch.

In a flip of the coin, I pick Tebow to make some magic in his final collegiate appearance to steal the title from the
Crimson Tide.

Why Georgia: This was the year no one had any idea what was going on, and with all the upsets, it was as if no one wanted to play in the national championship.

The final slot could go multiple ways.

Virginia Tech got destroyed by LSU, both of Missouri’s losses came to Oklahoma, Georgia and Knowshon Moreno were unstoppable in the second half of the season, and Hawaii went undefe— sorry, I couldn’t get through that with a straight face. But seriously, there are three solid choices.

Georgia gets the call with their late-season run and the fact that Moreno was running with Herschel Walker-esque in his freshman season.

Results: LSU proved in the actual national championship that Ohio State couldn’t match the size and speed of an SEC team that year. I’m picking Matthew Stafford and Georgia to upset Ohio State in the semifinal.

LSU and Oklahoma would have been much closer than Tiger fans might have expected. Oklahoma’s 12 combined first and second team All-Big 12 players, along with a young Sam Bradford make the game interesting. However, in the end, “Big Game” Bob Stoops comes up short, again, for a first all-SEC national championship game.

The Tigers had one of the only defenses in the nation that could have stopped Moreno at that point in the season.

On the offensive side, LSU coach Les Miles was in full “Mad Hatter” swing in a season where he could do no wrong as long as Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn were around to save him.

LSU keeps their title, winning on a last-second touchdown when Miles calls for Flynn to go for it all with four seconds left, when he thinks there’s actually 14 and he’d have time to win it with a field goal instead. Sound familiar?

Now, I tried to stay as unbiased toward SEC teams as I could, but that clearly didn’t work out very well. But let’s face it, I have as much respect for non-SEC teams as I do the French Military. Come on guys, at least try to win a war every once in a while.