We are ticking down to one of the most controversial National Championship Game ever. Despite several attempted meltdowns, and the possible destruction of a set of crutches by Dave Wanstedt, Pittsburgh did the unthinkable and defeated West Virginia. What a game! Controversial holding calls, crucial missed field goals, questionable decisions to kick on fourth and one, and oh what a finale. After a kick return set up West Virginia in Pittsburgh territory, an injured Pat White came off the sideline in heroic fashion and DID NOTHING. Are you kidding me? This should top Appalachian State-Michigan and Stanford-USC for the upset of the year for simple reason that West Virginia had so much to play for. This was West Virginia’s year. They’ve slowly been creeping up to the upper echelon, doing things like crushing Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, and now finally, they had the offense, they had the defense, they had the good fortune to be in contention with one loss. And West Virginia blew it.
Oh, and Missouri is trailing too. I immediately thought “LSU is getting in”. Then I flipped over to ABC and you could literally see the wheels turning in Herbstreit’s head. All of a sudden he latched onto it. “LSU deserves to be number 2.”
Let’s look at the other candidates.
Hawaii – Other than Boise St., they have no marquee wins. That’s just not good enough.
Kansas – As I said last week, their best win was 7-5 Texas A&M. That’s just not good enough.
Georgia – They may have a six game winning streak, and a good chance, but they didn’t win the SEC. LSU won the SEC.
Virginia Tech – They have only two losses and won the ACC, but they were blown out by LSU.
USC – They won the Pac 10 and lost to a very bad Stanford team.
Oklahoma – Why no love? They beat Missouri twice, Texas, and lost to two bowl eligible teams.
LSU – Yep, they should get it. The computers are going to love them, but will the voters take the time to think? Or will they just move Georgia up? We’re about to find out. And no matter what happens, the controversy is about to begin.