King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Ohio State vs. LSU: The BCS's answer to a wild, unpredictable year is a couple of usual suspects. Sorry, Hawaii.
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Dec. 3, 2007 | After all those crazy upsets and all that churn in the rankings, after a year when anything could happen and most of it did, the Bowl Championship Series has rounded up a couple of usual suspects for the Championship Game.
With almost a dozen teams able to make a claim for a shot at the title without laughing into their sleeve, the title game will be Ohio State vs. LSU. Oh, the topsy. The turvy. It has been months -- months, I tell you! -- since we've seen the likes of these two in the big one.
Ohio State earned its spot with a brilliantly played bye. The BCS voters and computers really admired the way the Buckeyes did nothing this week. These guys make Maynard G. Krebs look like Thomas Edison.
LSU played its way in by losing to an unranked team at home last week instead of this week. Losing to an unranked team this week would have been bad, not a championship-caliber move. Just ask West Virginia, which lost at home this week to Pitt. Losing to an unranked team last week? Not so bad.
Hawaii didn't lose to anybody, ever. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, No. 24 in the USA Today poll, went 12-0, and finished the season No. 10. They'll play Georgia in the Sugar Exhibition Game on New Year's Night in New Orleans.
Here's a list of the teams that passed Hawaii at some point this year in the three polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- and the BCS standings, all without the Warriors ever losing a game: Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Clemson, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Hang on. Just catching my breath. That was all in the first two weeks of the season.
Here's the rest of the list: Alabama, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky (again), Virginia, Georgia (again), Connecticut, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Florida, Texas, Clemson (again), Virginia (again) and Boston College (again).
Hawaii was passed 20 times in the AP poll and 19 times in the USA Today poll without ever losing a game. The Warriors were passed 10 times in 10 weeks in the Harris Interactive poll while going undefeated. They were leapfrogged 10 times in eight weeks in the BCS standings, winning all the while.
Last week, the 14th week of the season, was the first time all year that undefeated Hawaii was not jumped by at least one team in the USA Today poll. It was also the first time the Rainbows weren't jumped in any of the four rankings.