By the slimmest of margins, mind you, but they still exist.
Let’s be honest: it’s going to take a lot of work for the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal to find their way in the BCS title game with just one week left in the season. But, the way things have gone lately, it’s not out of the question. Stanford would need LSU to lose -- and likely lose big -- to Georgia in the SEC title game, Oklahoma State to lose to Oklahoma in Bedlam and Virginia Tech to drop the ACC title game.
But at least the Cardinal’s job is done, finishing out their season with a 28-14 win over Notre Dame. All that’s left is to wait and hope that a few things go their way in the next seven days. That’s the kind of system we’re in folks. The Cardinal already lost their chance to play for the Pac-12 championship and yet have a better shot than Oregon, who beat Stanford, at competing for a national title.
That’s not to say Stanford isn’t a good team -- they are -- but all of this is a completely bass ackwards way of determining championships.
Okay, I’ve complained long enough about the BCS. Moving on.
In fact, such a matchup between, say, Stanford and Alabama would be pretty interesting. With as physical as Stanford is up front, and as tenacious and speedy as Alabama is on defense, that could be one fun game littered with almost as many future NFL players as another game between LSU and Bama.
A couple of the concerns about Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck this season have been that he’s put up great numbers against weaker competition and that he’s struggled in big games. There’s no doubt Luck’s been a little off his mark in the past month -- he’s tossed six interceptions in his last five games -- but anybody who watches him also knows not all of those interceptions have been his fault, and he still makes some killer throws that some NFL quarterbacks can’t.
Pairing him against a defense that has plenty of future NFL players would be like Christmas morning for Jon Gruden.
In all liklihood, the Cardinal will have to settle for a BCS at-large spot, but they’re in the title conversation now. That’s more than a lot of other teams can say.