It’s a mess.  In a college football season that has made the improbable the only constant, Saturday’s championship and rivalry showdowns followed the 2007 script to perfection: What you were sure would happen . . . did not.

The championship scenario was very simple: West Virginia, a huge favorite over Pittsburgh in Morgantown, merely had to show up, play a little football for about a quarter, maybe a half, and they were off to New Orleans for the championship game.  And the Missouri Tigers, absent from major college football success for about 247 years, were poised to set all of Columbia, and the rest of the Show Me State, on its ear by taking out the Oklahoma Sooners.  Instead . . . madness.  Pitt wins, Oklahoma wins and the BCS . . . wins? 

The problem with West Virginia was that they actually believed all they had to do was show up, break a light sweat and start planning dinners on Bourbon Street during halftime.  Although standout quarterback Pat White was out for about half the game with a thumb injury he sustained in the 2nd quarter, the Mountaineers’ stunning 13-9 loss remains absolutely inexcusable for a team so strong in all phases of the game.    How they lose at home to a completely overmatched Pitt team falls into the category of embarrassment.

And Missouri, as great a season as they enjoyed this year, had many people, myself included, believing they were significantly better than the team that almost beat the Sooners in Norman earlier this year.  However, it was very clear from the beginning this evening that the Sooners were faster, stronger, more relaxed . . . let’s just cut to it: They were unquestionably the better team.  The final score, 38-17, was more than indicative of the gap between the two teams.

So who gets the invite to New Orleans?  Mizzou and West Virginia are out, that much we know; and that’s all we know.  It’s really a bit hard to stomach the fact that the regular season is over and we have no idea who is in the national championship game.

 Does Ohio State, sitting in the clubhouse ranked third, go to New Orleans?   It seems a given, but now that much of the overnight debate is in the hands of the pollsters will individual biases come into play and create drastic switches that allow, say, a ninth-ranked Oklahoma to slip in?  How about sixth-ranked, ACC champion Virginia Tech?  Perhaps eighth-ranked USC, arguably the most talented team in the nation playing better than everyone at season’s end except Georgia?  And what of the fourth-ranked Bulldogs?  Seems like it should be a no-brainer: Slip in Ohio State and Georgia and you’ve got one terrific game for the title.  But hold on one second: Georgia not only didn’t win the SEC championship, they didn’t even win the SEC east division, losing the tiebreaker to Tennessee.  No, the SEC champion is LSU after disposing the Vols 21-14 in a game LSU dominated statistically but didn’t put away until Tennessee quarterback  Eric Ainge misfired badly finding LSU cornerback Jonathan Zenon for an 18 yard interception return for a touchdown.

And what about seventh-ranked LSU?  Do they deserve to be in the championship game?  Although they’ve lost twice, both times in multiple overtime games, many think they remain the most dominant team in the nation.

That we are even having this discussion, the same discussion college football fans are batting around all over the nation right now, begs the question: When will college football’s big boys go to a playoff?  Some argue a playoff ends the kind of excitement, if you want to call it that, we saw transpire this afternoon, this evening and for most of the 2007 season.  The other side of that coin says take a peek at college basketball.  Teams win, teams lose, both in and out of their conferences and yet the passion is there, the excitement is there, the intensity is there . . . the regular season sweeps fans off their feet in both large and small arenas from coast-to-coast.  The subsequent conference tournaments build the excitement just a bit more and then, March Madness.  There’s nothing like it in all of sports.

But until a college football playoff becomes a reality, we are left with the BCS.  And although in most years, the BCS has for the most part gotten lucky, everyone knew sooner or later, today would arrive.  There have been the seasons where one team, maybe a second, felt robbed of a chance to play for the championship.  But today is unlike any other season-ending day that has come before.

There are six teams that can make a legitimate argument on why they should be playing in New Orleans on January 7, 2008: Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, USC, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech. 

My vote goes to Ohio State and Georgia.