BCS champs; not national champions

Florida’s Urban Meyer was given a Gatorade shower after his team won the BCS title game last week. Tim Tebow, Florida’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, sat at the pulpit following the game and declared his team the number one team in the nation. While that statement may be true, it’s definitely not undisputed.

In the good old days, when boxing really mattered, a heavyweight contender was given his shot at the titleholder. One-on-one, no guessing, just two contenders punching it out to see who would stand alone as the best boxer in the world. These matchups produced memorable bouts such as Ali vs. Frasier in the Rumble-in-the-Jungle, and Ali vs. Forman in the Thrilla-in-Manilla. Only one fighter would remain standing at the end of the fight.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case in the world of college football. Sure there’s a title game, but rarely are the best two teams actually invited to play. This season in particular has seen a host of title contenders jockeying for a shot at the title belt. After 13 weeks of teams fighting it out only one team has been left standing.
Only one team took out four nationally ranked teams along the way and never lost a game. Only one team week-in-and-week-out came out with a “W”. Only one group of young men in the entire country can say they won every game on their schedule, and that team is the University of Utah. And that team was forced to sit at home and watch someone else hoist up the BCS championship trophy.

The debate over who’s the best won’t have a chance to be legitimately settled this season. Florida rode off into the sunset as national champions, but rest assured they will be thankful they didn’t have to duke it out with the undefeated Utes.