BCS National Championship Game: Alabama vs. LSU

This seems like a toss-up of a game between the Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1) and the LSU Tigers (13-0).  I've gone back and forth on this topic for the last several weeks.  Both teams have dominating defenses, run-oriented offenses, and proven coaches.

I'm not sure if the math backs me up or not, but it sure seems that when a team gets a rematch later in the season, the loser of the first game wins the rematch more often than not.  That's one reason why I think Alabama will win tonight's game.  I also think Alabama has a better running game and I don't trust the quarterback combo of Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee.

I'm no expert on either team and have only watched these teams as much as the average Big Ten or Pac-12, but I'll say Alabama wins it by a score of 17-14.

Players to watch for Michigan recruitniks:

• Alabama: LB Trey DePriest, S Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, CB John Fulton, CB Dre Kirkpatrick, WR Marquis Maze (former Michigan commit), CB Dee Milliner, 
• LSU: OT Chris Davenport, OT Chris Faulk, LB Karnell Hatcher, S Craig Loston, DE Barkevious Mingo, DE Sam Montgomery, LB Luke Muncie, WR Russell Shepard, RB Spencer Ware

Random Thoughts

Joselyn Cano is attractive.

It's Sunday and Michigan didn't play football yesterday.

I am lost.  So here are some random thoughts about football and other things:

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Wisconsin beat Michigan State last night.  Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio are the two biggest tools in the Big Ten, but Dantonio takes the cake.  And the reason Dantonio's team lost was its stupidity and lack of discipline shown by running into the kicker during a critical play at the end of the game, allowing Wisconsin to get a first down and run out the clock with a 42-39 lead.  Maybe if Dantonio didn't condone criminal and unsportsmanlike activity from his players, he might have a Big Ten championship.

Sorry, people, but Alabama deserves to play in the national championship game.  Their lone loss came to an undefeated juggernaut in the form of LSU.  Oklahoma State lost to a 6-6 Iowa State team.  Stanford got blown out by Oregon.  Houston lost to a Southern Mississippi squad that had two losses, to schools such as UAB and Marshall.  Boise State plays a weak schedule and lost to the weakest TCU team we've seen in a few years.  The Crimson Tide played five teams that are ranked at the end of the season; they went 4-1 against those teams and the loss to LSU was in overtime by a score of 9-6.  In those other four contests, the average score was 36-12.  The closest margin of victory the whole year was a 16-point victory over Penn State.  If no other team is a compelling candidate, then a team with a three-point overtime loss to the 13-0 shoo-in deserves a rematch.

The sad thing about rematches is that they don't necessarily solve anything.  If Alabama gets to the national championship game (and I think they will) and beats LSU, then the two best teams will be 1-1 against each other.  The only way for the championship game to be completely satisfying is for LSU to win.

I laughed when I saw Southern Mississippi head coach Larry Fedora exclaim that his team "proved" that they deserve to be in a BCS bowl game.  You play in Conference USA, you ignoramus.  The only thing you proved is that Houston isn't that great, either.  There is a long list of teams that deserve BCS bowl game berths ahead of Southern Miss.  Get over yourself.

Michigan beat Iowa State in basketball yesterday by a score of 76-66.  I don't know much about basketball, so I keep my thoughts on that sport to a minimum . . . but the team's starters look solid.  The bench is very iffy.  Good teams can bring guys off the bench who jump start the offense or at least fit in somewhat seamlessly.  I don't see that with Michigan.  If they can stay healthy, though, they might be able to make another run in March.  It was nice to see the Wolverines beat some former Big Ten castoffs.

I know I'm late to the party, but I just watched Blue Chips for the first time.  If you don't know what it is, it's a movie about big-time college basketball recruiting starring Nick Nolte, Shaquille O'Neal, Anferneee Hardaway, and some of the worst acting I've seen in a long time.  It was poorly written, poorly acted, and completely ridiculous.  The only good thing about it was the basketball action looked somewhat realistic, unlike sports movies such as The Program and Major League.