Champs? Gators claim BCS crown, but Utes earned it on field

Amid all the controversy about college football and the upstart University of Utah football team, they played the so-called "BCS Championship game" Thursday night in Miami and afterward crowned the University of Florida national champs.

Led by former Utah coach Urban Meyer, the Gators defeated Oklahoma 24-14 to lay claim to the title — at least as far as the BCS is concerned. Now if they could just convince the rest of America.

If points are awarded based on style and performance — and they are in the weird world of college football — then both of these teams were outshined by Utah's brilliant Sugar Bowl performance. Neither of those challengers for the national title produced the methodical, business-like performance that the Utes exhibited in the Sugar Bowl.

There was one other problem with last night's championship game, of course: Utah wasn't in it.

Only in college football could the lone unbeaten team in the country be sitting at home watching the championship game on TV like the rest of us.

The Utes were the white elephant in the middle of the field that no one wanted to talk about, especially the gushy TV broadcast team that apparently wanted to keep friends with the BCS gravy train.

With all the complaining and debate and frustration surrounding the NCAA's ridiculous formula for determining a football champion, there's something to be said for the current situation. The Utes are the center of attention in the national debate.

They have been the BCS's worst nightmare, and that can only be a good thing. For anyone who wants change, the more problems the BCS has, the better, and the Utes have given them plenty. Their unbeaten season and their Sugar Bowl thumping of one of college's bluebloods, the University of Alabama, have become a cause celebre.

They have been at the vortex of a new, more intense national discussion about the state of college football and the need for an orderly, sensible playoff system.

The Utes might be remembered forever as the BCS busters, the team that challenged college football's caste system and beat them at their own game — and finally created the kind of furor that ultimately forced change. They have started a class war. They have become a rallying cry.

The argument for change is decades old, but the Utes' Sugar Bowl victory and the resulting fallout are like the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, the storming of the Bastille, the dumping of the tea in Boston Harbor. There might be no turning back now. Every other year during the BCS era the football season has ended in dispute and controversy over the champion, but never like this. This tops them all.

Two nationally renowned columnists took up the Utes' cause this week. ESPN's Rick Reilly and the Washington Post's John Feinstein declared the Utes as national champions this week.

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