I actually agree with your post except I'll make a small correction. I'm hurt. :-[ Until 2001, MSU was hardly and auto W. More often than not, it was a nice fat L, escpecially in Starkville. I seem to remember MSU having the longest home win streak in the nation 4-5 years ago.

stevus,
More often than not you could easily substitute Ole Miss for MSU as you well know, except for the aberration of the last few years. I would really like to see some of these teams like Ole Miss and Kentucky actually get up once in a while and stay up for a while.
Are you out of Mannings yet down there? ;)

Yep, he's the last one. There were three, but Cooper, the oldest, did not play in college. I believe he got hurt. So, the Manning era at Ole Miss ends, that is for about a quarter century!! ;)

Like you, I am disappointed by Kentucky...and Vanderbilt for that matter. Being a Mississippi State fan during the 1980s will teach you to sympathize with underdogs. I keep waiting for Kentucky to actually step and at least challenge for the East division. They've had some seven win years (regular season), but just really haven't had that 8-3 or 9-2 season. Vanderbilt....well, I'm just waiting, though I haven't figured out yet what for!!! :-/ I'd also like to see Lou Holtz win the East division at South Carolina sometime before he drops dead. And even though I'm a State fan, I was disappointed the Rebels didn't win the West this season. If they'd beaten LSU, they then could've politely lost to MSU (bwahahah - I wish - and I got soaking wet for little more than love of the game) and still won an outright West title. They STILL remain the only West school not to win the division.

First of all, my name is spelled wrong. Second of all, my team played Auburn when they were the Sporting News #1, and I think that they should rightfully be judged as such, rather than a 7-5 team--they weren't a 7-5 team when we played them! Our win against Auburn should carry more weight than LSU's for that very reason. Thirdly, SC didn't cancel games with opponents like Marshall and Virginia Tech to play Louisiana-Monroe and Western Illinois. Fourthly, SC beat Notre Dame, who beat Pitt, who beat Virginia Tech, who beat Miami(FL), who beat Florida, who beat LSU. Who has LSU beat? Fifthly, SC lost before LSU and Oklahoma, and "earlier loss" has been the paramount tie-breaker since the beginning of college football. Besides, Cal beat Washington, who beat Oregon, who beat Michigan, who beat Notre Dame, who beat Pittsburgh, who beat Virginia Tech, who beat Miami, who beat Florida, who beat LSU. Also, SC had to overcome the difficulties of defeating two separate religious institutions who competed with divine intervention on their side! Who did LSU's non-conference opponents have on their side? Huh? Terry Bradshaw? Bobby Hebert? Bubby Brister? Bryan Cox? Justin Levasseur? My point exactly. I am so sick of this d**n South Coast bias! Obviously the very intelligent and competent voters selected my team is the #1 in the land...it's not my fault they weren't intelligent enough to realize that they weren't smart enough to manipulate the polls! I mean, it's not like it was a foregone conclusion that Oklahoma was guaranteed a Top 2 finish in the BCS win or lose against Kansas State! How were the voters supposed to know that USC could have had a higher BCS ranking if they had simply left Oklahoma off of their ballots? I could have never figured that out myself. How were the voters supposed to realize that this wouldn't have been the first time that the polls had been abused for purely political reasons? I thought that the Coaches elevated Nebraska to #1 after the 1997 season because they were contractually obligated to do so. Am I supposed to believe that Tom Osborne concocted some retirement ruse just to ensure that his team received a share of the national title in 1997? Never. LSU simply does not deserve to play in the Sugar Bowl. Did the SEC have an African-American head coach before this off-season? No. Did the Pac-10? Yes, the Pac-10 has had several, including Karl Dorrell, Tyrone Willingham, Dennis Green, and Tyrone Willingham. Some people want to say that Karl Dorrell being given the UCLA job was an example of tokenism, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Also, Nick Saban has never been an NFL head coach, like I have. Saban used to be a head coach in the MAC, and everybody knows that the MAC sucks, yet LSU still lost to Miami of Ohio in 1986. Also, during the 1997 Independence Bowl a drunken LSU fan ran onto the field in a pair of tighty purples and it was quite embarrassing. Also, LSU has lost to Baylor in a bowl game before! BAYLOR! Sure SC has lost to Fresno State and Utah, but Baylor! BAYLOR! Don't even get me started about the Curly Hallman-era. At least SC has never had any former coaches participate in failed ventures like the XFL. I think all of the foregoing are appropriate reasons as to why USC should be in the Sugar Bowl and not LSU.

You, sir, have posted a gem. I applaud you.

I think that the top 4 teams should be in this order.
1. LSU
2. USC
3. Michigan
4. Oklahoma.
LSU and USC should play in the national championship and LSU would win.

Dear "Pete Carroll,"

How does the SEC not having a black coach until the end of this season have anything to do with whether or not LSU deserves to go to the Sugar Bowl? I thought race wasn't an issue. Is it? Coach Croom doesn't seem to think so. By the way, you mentioned Ty Willingham twice.

in listening to an inordinate amount of LA-based FOX Sports Radio in the past week, I am sick and tired of listening to these USC apologists who have no sense of history and fail to realize that the BCS system was created in part to negate the undue influence of subjective human polling. Artie Gigantino, is the worst. Not only does he advocate mandating 12-team conferences, one of his possible solutions is a "common sense poll" made up of former coaches including LaVell Edwards, Darrell Royal, and Bo Schembechler, and perhaps even the illustrious Frank Broyles. Oh yes, that would make perfect sense, especially seeing as how Royal hasn't coached for the last twenty-eight seasons! What, were Frank Kush, Earle Bruce, and Chuck Fairbanks not available? Give me a break, FOX. You constantly deride ESPN, yet subsist as a parodied version of an all-sports entity that would never have existed if not for a market hastened and nurtured by ESPN. Also, note that the Sporting News and FOX Sports have merged their web pages...oh joy!

Ex-coaches often are out-of-touch and may have an ax to grind. Others may be keeping up and are objective.

Some of the current coaches are not that informed beyond their own conferences and common opponents. During the regular season, few get to watch a heavy mixture of other games for obvious reasons.

I remember several years back, Bo Schembechler, as a TV sports commentator, making some remarks that came across as condescending and dismissing toward a ranked and undefeated (or near) East Carolina team at the time. What showed, is he knew little about the school to the dismay of the program moderator. The Ex-coach later modified his comments.

Yeah, when I came into the NFL, Buddy Ryan told me "there aren't any East Carolinas in this league," and while I assembled three Super Bowl Champions he lost two first-round home playoff games, got fired by the Eagles, punched his team's defensive coordinator (Kevin Gilbride) on the sideline during a nationally-televised game, and then got used as a ploy for the owner of the "new," "Arizona" Cardinals to sell tickets. Strangely enough, he has probably also worked for FOX Sports at one time or another...