Photo courtesy of Associated Press

It was certainly a great night for the Tiger fans here in the Phisch Bowl. We had some fellow alumni over, as well as friends who are just college football fans, and their kids. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, had Zapp's potato chips and Abita beer (Amber and Turbodog), even some king cake. We ate well, we cheered hard for our Tigers, and cheered harder still as the clock ran down in the fourth quarter. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Monday night, my folks made the requisite birthday phone call, and while chatting with my dad, I was informed that thirty-seven years ago today, I witnessed my first LSU football game. Not that I recall one lick of it, you understand, being all of two days old. But Dad held me and we watched LSU go at it against Ole Miss, which was quarterbacked by the legendary Archie Manning. Of the three games Archie played against the Tigers, this was the only one he lost, and the Rebels lost big, 61-17. Manning played the game with a protected broken arm. (They don't make football players like they use to, though some come close.) So for my friends who might not quite understand my passion for college football, especially the Tigers, you could say I was born to it, and it's been with me ever since. GEAUX TIGERS!!

In some cultures, it is customary for the one having a birthday, instead of receiving gifts, to give them to loved ones and friends. Since I'm unemployed and living off of the labor of the hot number who agreed to swim through life with me, my gift to my college football-loving friends is a ready-made, iCalendar format calendar for the 2007 College Football Bowl season. From the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (there's a mouthful) on December 20th through the Allstate BCS Championship Game (Geaux Tigers!) on January 8th, they're all in there, complete with locations, the match-ups, and the station on which you can find the game, courtesy of ESPN. All times are for the Central time zone. Just click on the link below, unzip the file, and open it in your calendar application of choice. (Provided said calendar application supports the iCalendar protocol. This was created in Apple's iCal, so if you're a Mac OS X user, you're covered.) Enjoy!

Some chatter by the sports media talking heads got me to wondering, so I did some research. I was wrong when I stated that a team had to win their conference to play in the BCS national championship game, thus eliminating Georgia and Kansas from contention. According to the BCS Selection Policies and Procedures, the only requirements to play in the National Championship Game (NCG) is that the two teams must be ranked first and second in the BCS rankings. What this means is that if the unlikely scenario I posited comes true, and Missouri, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech all lose, what we'd likely see is Ohio State and Georgia playing for the BCS championship. That's right, one team that played its last game on 11/17, and the other on 11/24, each getting to play for the national title, and only one of whom won its conference. If that scenario isn't just one of many which continues to scream the need for a playoff system, I don't know what would be one. What this means is that if somehow Mizzo, WV, and VT all lose--and things are tied up between BC and VT as of this writing--and LSU prevails, the pollsters would have to give my Tigers some serious love to vault them past Georgia and Kansas to put them in the national championship game. Otherwise, the best they can hope for is the Sugar Bowl. Given how badly they played last week against Arkansas, and the way they've struggled all through November, that may just be the best they should get any way. Geaux Tigers!!!

So the Tigers really blew it on Friday. Looking ahead to the SEC championship? Thinking of playing for the national title game? Distracted by the Miles-leaving-for-Michigan chatter? Whatever it was, the LSU football team was clearly not focused on getting past Arkansas, and it led to their number-one ranking being lost again in triple overtime. Today's BCS poll has the Tigers in the number seven spot, which is probably about right. (I think they should be ranked ahead of Virginia Tech, a team they trounced early in the season and which has not had as tough a schedule as the Tigers, but since when has playing in the toughest conference counted for anything with the polls?) It is possible for LSU to still advance to the BCS National Championship Game, but they need a lot of help, which they probably won't get. 1. The Tigers have to put the rest of the season behind them and take care of business against Tennessee in the SEC Championship. The same team that demolished a good Virginia Tech team in week two needs to emerge once again, because, quite frankly, we haven't seen that team since around week two. The Tigers have a perennial problem of playing down to the level of their opponent, rather than at the consistently high level they should be playing at. This is what cost them the game against Arkansas, and could spell their doom against Tennessee. 2. Missouri has to lose to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. (Quite possible, as it appears that the Sooners are better now than when they beat Missouri earlier in the season.) 3. West Virginia has to lose to Pittsburgh. (The most unlikely of these scenarios.) 4. Virginia Tech has to lose to Boston College. (Will the Hokies fall twice in the same year to BC? It happened to Georgia against LSU in 2003. Unfortunately, this is probably the second least-likely outcome.) If all of the above were to occur, LSU would theoretically be in the BCS Championship game against Ohio State. The season is over for Georgia and Kansas. Since they won't win their conferences, they're not allowed to play for the BCS title, despite being ranked by the BCS ahead of LSU. What I think will actually happen is this: 1. LSU beats Tennessee in a closer-than-it-should've-been contest to advance to the Sugar Bowl, much to the chagrin (again) of the Sugar Bowl committee and New Orleans Board of Tourism, both of which want the influx of cash from out-of-staters, rather than fans who can drive the 60 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and still sleep in their own beds. 2. Oklahoma upsets Missouri to win the Big 12. 3. Boston College rallies from behind late in the game to upset VT. 4. West Virginia trounces Pittsburgh much like what they did to Connecticut to advance to the BCS National Championship against Ohio State. So we shall hope for the former scenario, while acknowledging the latter is far, far more likely...

Yeah? Why not? Here's the rub, looking at the latest AP poll and BCS rankings: Ohio State may be unbeaten, but they haven't exactly had a tough time in their lossless season. Of the three ranked teams they've played, and beaten, none of those teams have been ranked higher than 21. The Big Ten is not so big this season. LSU, on the other hand, plays in the toughest conference in the land, widely acknowledged as such by the sports media and honest college football coaches and fans. As Mark May said one night on College GameDay Final, "Where do NFL scouts go first? The SEC." LSU has played twice as many ranked teams to date as OSU, with a record of 5-1 against those opponents. None of those opponents were ranked lower than 17. Sure, LSU hasn't been putting up the big numbers against their opponents like the Buckeyes have done, but it's easy to pad the score and go undefeated when you're playing a bunch of nobodies. And this nonsense about Kansas leapfrogging the Tigers should the Jayhawks go undefeated? Please. The case for Kansas being number one or two is weak. Their only win against a ranked team was in-state rival Kansas State, which clocked in on the October 6th game day at number 24. Oklahoma has a much better case, even with its one loss, at a higher ranking, since both of its wins came against teams ranked above twenty. The Big 12 as a conference isn't its usual powerful self this season either, but based on their schedule, I'd still put the Sooners ahead of the Buckeyes--and right behind LSU. The Tigers have definitely had the hardest road to the national championship, and unlike OSU or Oregon, will have to play one more game to get there. (Barring, that is, back-to-back stumbles against Ole Miss and Arkansas, both in the bottom half of the SEC West.) Looking at the rest of the season, it's very likely that LSU will be facing a Top 10 opponent in Georgia for that contest, eclipsing by ranking the twelfth-ranked Wolverines OSU faces on the seventeenth. Ever since, and including, the game against Florida, LSU has been it's own worst opponent, not the folks on the other side of the ball. Ivan Maisel calls it. The Tigers have played sloppy and undisciplined. It cost them at Kentucky, and made for much closer games against Florida, Auburn, and Alabama. Yet the Tigers still find ways to win against teams the likes of which Ohio State has nightmares about (Florida in Glendale earlier this year), and Oregon prays they won't have to play in the post-season. Why is so hard for an undefeated team to emerge from the SEC? Because the conference is just that good. Witness the rankings this week: no conference has more teams in the Top 25 than the SEC. Last season, no conference played in more bowls than the SEC. Last season, no conference won more bowl games than the SEC. (No one won as many as the SEC did, either.) You want to talk strength of schedule? Start with the Southeastern Conference, because that's where the strength not only lives, but has drilled deep to lay the foundation the rest of college football wishes its conferences were built upon. At least five members of the sports media got it right this week: they cast their number-one votes for the Fighting Tigers of LSU. If Les Miles can, ahem, "enlighten" his team to the point that the same Tigers who dismantled number-nine Virginia Tech in the second week show up for the rest of the season, the SEC Championship, and the national title game, God help whomever their opponent is. GEAUX TIGERS!!!