Why Utah is My National Champ:

(Rankings are all post-regular season but pre-bowls)

Let’s look at the contenders:

Oklahoma:
Wins against ranked teams- 3 (#11 TCU, #8 Texas Tech, #25 Missouri)
Losses- 1 (#3 Texas)

Florida:
Wins against ranked teams- 2 (#16 Georgia, #4 Alabama)
Losses- 1 (Unranked Ole’ Miss)

USC:
Wins against ranked teams- 3 (#15 Oregon, #10 Ohio State, #7 Penn State)
Losses- 1 (#24 Oregon State)

Texas (Let’s just assume they beat Ohio State on Monday. If not they aren’t in the discussion anyway):
Wins against ranked teams- 5 (#2 Oklahoma, #25 Missouri, #13 Oklahoma State, #8 Texas Tech, #10 Ohio State (presumed))
Losses- 1 (#8 Texas Tech)

UTAH:
Wins against ranked teams- 4 (#25 Oregon State, #11 TCU, #17 BYU, #4 Alabama)
Losses- …..

First let’s get USC out of the way. They are the perennial, “But wait! You forgot about…” team. Every year we hear about how they only had that one loss and how they killed everyone else and won the Rose Bowl. I don’t even know if the Rose Bowl can count for them anymore. The Trojans own the Rose Bowl like Mike Shanahan owns the Raid- … ok, OWNED the Raiders (should have given him one more year, Pat). They have this mystical power over that Bowl and they come out every year smelling like, well, roses because of it. Even still, they DID beat a top ten team there but their early season loss to Oregon State is really was kills them. They barely won the Pac-10, for God’s sake. Then you look at their quality wins as a whole: Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon. All good teams, but Oregon is the best by FAR in my mind (I don’t think the Big 10 could compete with the WAC over a whole season top to bottom), and that just isn’t going to cut it when we’re talking about a National Title.

Ok, so USC is out. We can assume that whichever team losses the BCS Title game is out of the running, too. Which would leave Okla/Florida, Texas, or Utah as the remaining contenders. When looking at pure strength of wins and quality of losses, the two best choices of those are actually Texas or Utah. Those two schools have more wins against ranked opponents than the rest, which is obvious, but some would argue that Oklahoma’s loss is more understandable than Texas’ because it was to a higher ranked opponent. Let’s look at it, though. First of all, TEXAS beat Oklahoma, and by ten whole points. Both of those weigh against an Oklahoma over Texas argument. Couple that with the fact that Texas’ lone lose came with one second to go in the game on a miracle play by the Biletnikoff winner, and Oklahoma is out in my mind (even if they beat Florida. In fact, if they beat Florida, Texas should immediately be crowned Champions, right? Afterall, they did beat the Sooners).

But wait, then there’s Utah. They didn’t lose a game… that’s HUGE! And they played 4 ranked opponents, the second most by these top teams, one of which was ranked #1 for over 75% of the season. The Utes didn’t just beat that team, either, they dismantled them. The fact that Utah played a quality schedule (not just the ranked teams, but good wins over a bowl-winning club in Colorado State, and an always tough Air Force squad), and never lost pushes them over the top to me. I think they should be aided the most by a Florida win in the title game. Florida is the weakest team in the running by strength of schedule (losing to an unranked team and only beating two ranked clubs) and Utah just embarassed the best team they beat all year. However, I know that if Florida wins, the Gators will be crowned the National Champs, and if Oklahoma wins, they will be. But to me, an impartial sports observer, Utah is clearly the best team in the country at the end of the year, and the only team with a real argument against them is Texas (if they beat Ohio State by a lot). Neither of these teams will even have a chance at being the Champion. Something’s wrong here.