The National Championship

First things first - "Mr. Bradford, this is the Downtown Athletic Club.  We hoped you enjoyed a couple of weeks with our trophy. now please deliver it the rightful owner, in Gainesville, FL."

If the BCS game didn't resolve the question of a national champion to everyone's satisfaction, it certainly should have clarified that the voters who left Tebow off their Heisman ballots should all have their voting privileges revoked.  Sam Bradford is a splendid passer at the helm of a wildly prolific offense.  But the Heisman is supposed to go to the best college football player in America, and no one can seriously debate that Tebow is the best college football player.  As a passer he is adequate enough, as a running back he is perhaps the best fullback in the SEC, but more than all of that he is without a doubt the most competitive SOB since Michael Jordan.  And his ability to impose his will on the game was the difference in the game and the difference in who should have won the Heisman.  Bradford was only as good as he could be passing against the Gators defense; when passing wasn't working, Tebow simply overpowered the Sooners.

When Texas won its championship a few years back, it was so clearly because Vince Young absolutely refused to lose that game.  Tebow's performance this week may have been more dominant than that.  (And now there's word that Tebow plans to stay at Florida for his senior year.  What could be better than a college player staying in college, even when he has absolutely nothing left to prove?  

Now to the debate.  Texas took a little of the steam out of this one by almost tripping against an Ohio State team that no one would mistake for a title contender.   Yeah, sure, you have only one loss, Horns, but with a couple of dominant programs up for the title, squeeking by everyone's favorite January punching-bag doesn't cut it.

Next off the list is USC.  Two words.  Oregon State.  Why is this decisive?  You're 12-1.  Utah is 13-0, but USC played a major college schedule.  Wrong.  So did Utah.  USC played seven games against teams that played a bowl game; Utah played six.  The difference is Oregon State.  Utah won; USC lost.  Good season, boys.  See you in September.

So it's down to Utah and Florida.  Who's the champion?  The "and 1" game would decide it.  Texas and USC can complain that they should have been in a four-team playoff, but that isn't coming any time soon.  The "and 1" could happen next year if they wanted.  

Florida beat Alabama.  Utah beat Alabama.  Line 'em up and then we'd know.  Next Saturday, with the NFL championships on Sunday.  Must see TV.

But that's only what should happen.  It isn't what did happen.  So who's the champ?  My southern bias points me to Florida.  My admiration for Tebow points me to Florida.  Watching the Gator defense shut down the unstoppable Oklahoma offense like a high schooler getting stuffed in his locket points me to Florida.  But there is that loss, at home, to Mississippi.  Didn't happen to Utah, not once.  The earned it, on the field, with perfection.

Florida gets the crystal football.  They earned it.  But so did Utah.  I'd give it to them.