NEW ORLEANS- Ohio State football players say much of the country views the Buckeyes as a team of nobodies who have no business playing in the national championship game. Les Miles, the Louisiana State coach, said it took nothing less than divine intervention for the twice-beaten Tigers to reach tonight's championship.
After the most maddening and unpredictable regular season in memory, Ohio State and Louisiana State, two schools believed to be out of the title race at different times in November, almost inexplicably emerged as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in Bowl Championship Series ratings. But there is little consensus whether the two teams that will play for the championship at the Louisiana Superdome are truly the two best teams in the country.
"As far as college students, we'd love a playoff system," said Doug Worthington, an Ohio State starting defensive tackle. "There would be less doubters and a lot more legitimate wins. The right teams would be there so there would be none of this, 'Well this team should not be there.' It would solidify a lot of things."
Without a playoff system in place, fans are left to wonder whether the best team playing in New Orleans this month was neither Ohio State nor LSU, but rather twice-beaten Georgia, which won its seventh consecutive game on New Year's night by demolishing previously unbeaten Hawaii, 41-10. They are left to debate whether a once-beaten Kansas team, despite playing a relatively soft schedule, is worthy of playing for the national championship. And they are left to imagine how twice-beaten Southern California, now healthy and playing as it was expected to when hailed as the preseason favorite, would fare against anyone in the country.
"Let the argument go on there with the people battling the BCS process to figure it out," USC Coach Pete Carroll said following a 49-17 victory over Illinois in the Rose Bowl. "I have no answer for them. Just wish we could keep playing, and I know these guys would. We would play long into springtime if we had to, if they would let us."
Only on rare occasions has the BCS system avoided controversy. To end the 2005 season, USC and Texas, clearly the nation's two best teams, played a game for the ages in the Rose Bowl. Most other seasons end with at least one school feeling it was unfairly left out of a chance to play for the championship.
The only thing predictable this season was the week-to-week tumult. A team ranked in the top five lost to an unranked team 13 times. A two-loss team will play for the BCS title for the first time. When the final BCS ratings were unveiled Dec. 2, at least five schools with resumes they viewed as equally deserving were left to lament the process that left them out.
As a result, it remains to be seen whether this year's national championship game brings closure or merely a conclusion to the topsy-turvy season.
"This year would have been a great time for a playoff," Ohio State punter A.J. Trapasso said.
This also would have been a good year for the plus-one model, a BCS format that includes an extra game to match the two top teams after the five BCS games are played. The concept has gained momentum over the past year, and Mike Slive, the BCS coordinator, said he is committed to exploring it thoroughly.
Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, whose Buckeyes are playing in their second consecutive national championship game, said he supports the current BCS format. Miles said the current BCS structure is a "quality format," adding, "I think at some point in time it will change again. Hopefully, in my lifetime it will be through five years where no one says they should be playing in the game."
In this season, a case could be made for or against any of the highly ranked teams. Consider Ohio State, which received 50 out of 65 first-place votes in the final Associated Press poll. Tressel found enough public criticism among analysts and broadcasters to put together a 10-minute DVD for players to take home for motivational purposes.
The Buckeyes (11-1) have rarely looked overpowering and did not beat another national contender during the regular season. Their championship hopes appeared over after losing their home finale to Illinois on Nov. 10. But as Worthington said, "Each week it seemed like we had a little present, with someone dropping off here and there."
LSU (11-2) also lost its home finale against Arkansas in a 50-48 triple-overtime thriller. The following week, the Tigers beat Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference title game Dec. 1 and learned during their flight home that both No. 1 Missouri and No. 2 West Virginia were about to lose.
"I think there was some divine intervention," Miles said. "I think the guy upstairs kind of chose the teams not with any priority, certainly, but for one team in the country (West Virginia) to lose to a team (Pittsburgh) that played a career night and won't even be in a bowl game was certainly unusual."
There is no guarantee, however, that Monday's championship game will end the debate that roared during this most dizzying of seasons. Sharing the sentiment of many players, Ohio State's Worthington said, "I'd love to settle it on the field."