Tuesday, November 29, 2011

But What if Georgia BEATS LSU?

Everyone keeps talking about LSU and Alabama. They're obviously the two best teams, no one's touched LSU, and the only team that Bama lost to IS LSU. So many people believe LSU and AL should be national title game, whether or not LSU is able to win the SEC Title Game on Saturday.

But allow me to interject this...

What if, just WHAT IF...UGA BEATS LSU? I don't mean "what if" Georgia wins the game...I mean "what if" Georgia puts up 35 points, and LSU puts up 14? What happens if Georgia forces three turnovers, jumps out to a big lead, and holds on the whole way? What if Georgia is the team that the locker room believes it is, and they stomp LSU?

Then what happens?

Well, I think there are a number of possibilities. First off, I think that the College Football World will implode. Shortly after that, the AJC writers will begin to claim that Mark Richt has the team on the Steroid Bus and that is the only reason for the turnaround because, you know, the guy can't coach.

After all of THAT is over, the pollsters just might be tempted to admit that Georgia is certainly the best 2-loss team in the nation. As we discussed yesterday, the issue with Georgia is that we don't have a "quality" win on our schedule, margins of victory be damned. A win Saturday, however, would change that in a hot second. Georgia, by virtue of its own win alone, would leap to no worse than #8 in the country. Then, however, we have to really start to look at those one-loss teams. Personally, I couldn't rank a team who didn't win its conference higher than the team who won that conference, provided the Champion had proven itself to be a quality team. Case in point...even if UCLA wins the Pac-12 somehow, there is no way I could rank them higher than Stanford or Oregon. On the other hand, Georgia was slow to start, but with a win over LSU, will have won 11 games in a row - capped off with a victory over the team everyone has agreed is the hands-down best team in the country. That's quality.

If Georgia beats LSU, I have to rank LSU behind the Dawgs. So, that puts Georgia at no worse than 7th, with the Tigers being 8th (I don't see how the pollsters allow their Annointed to fall that far...so that could be good for us). Then, you look at Alabama. They've been pretty impressive, too - but their one loss was in an all-evens OT battle to LSU. Again, in our fantasy here, Georgia has just dominated LSU. As a result, Bama would have to be ranked below Georgia. That pushes Georgia to no worse than sixth (and there's just no way the pollsters can drop AL AND LSU that far can they?).

Stanford, I believe, would get leaped by any conference champions at the end of the season due to their lack of a title, and lack of quality wins (UGA moves to 5th). So now, you have Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Boise State and Houston.

If OSU and VaTech win their conferences, and UGA has stomped LSU, I wouldn't be shocked to see OSU and VT in the National Title game. However, should one of those teams lose, that team would end up BEHIND Georgia as UGA is definitely the best 2-loss team in the country as evidenced by the win over LSU. So, Georgia is no worse than fourth. Should BOTH OSU and VT lose (a very strong possibility), Georgia should sit at no worse than 3rd.

So, then you have to ask yourself - are the pollsters going to put Houston and Boise into the National Title game....or would they even be able to, based on the computers? I do not know what all the numbers are, nor how they will be impacted by a Georgia Whipping of LSU. Many people would say, "we can't rank Georgia over Boise when Boise beat Georgia" - but the season that Georgia has had FOLLOWING that loss is much stronger than what Boise has done since that game - especially when you add beating LSU to the list of accomplishments. Boise's final automatic-win game this weekend won't do much to pad the resume' either.

So, I could see how a combination of the pollsters and the computer rankings could slide UGA into the #2 spot for a shot at the title.

Yes, I know this is all ridiculous.

But, if this weekend is one of the craziest in College Football history; if Georgia dominates LSU; if the one-loss "would be" champs lose their final games; if the pollsters finally get over the fact that UGA dropped 2 games at the beginning of the season (don't they always say - if you're gonna lose, you gotta lose early?) - then you could quite possibly maybe see the 11-2 Georgia Bulldogs playing in the BCS Title Game.

I really need to stop getting drunk on Tuesday Morning.

Go Dawgs!



4 comments:

Big Muddy Dawg said...

No, you really don't. I quite enjoyed this little fantasy of ours and would be happy to read similar fantasies throughout the week. Bottoms up!

Boston Dawg said...

Keep getting drunk, I like your logic!

Seriously, though, if we somehow beat LSU (especially if we stomp them) I'm going to be like that Auburn kid in 2004 who started his own voters poll...and I will declare UGA to be the #1 team in the nation.

If the BCS title game is between two SEC teams, neither of whom won their conference, I can't imagine a better argument for a playoff system.

Bernie said...

I don't think the ESPN darlings could face the idea of turning their back on Darth Saban like that. Even though Saban himself once said that only conference champions should play for the big trophy. I think regardless of what happens in ATL Saturday, it's LSU and Bama.

I agree with Big Muddy and Boston, keep drinking. It's the only way to get through the BCS mess.

mike said...

Worse logic ever.... "can't rank lsu over Georgia, is Geo wins...."

"Doesn't matter if Boise beat Geo, thats not enough to rank Geo over Boise..."