Everyone here at BON (and nationally) is hoping for Texas and USC to remain undefeated and meet in Pasadena to decide the national championship on Jan. 4. This dream matchup will prevent BCS chaos.
Now let me propose this thought for the gallery:
Texas and USC have quite possibly already clinched spots in the Rose Bowl.
If USC loses to UCLA, Texas would be the consensus #1 team, but the Trojans could realistically remain #2 in the BCS.
Meanwhile, since Texas has already clinched a spot in the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 3, a 1-loss Texas could also remain ahead of LSU, Penn State and Virginia Tech for a spot in the Rose Bowl.
If the Horns somehow lost to Texas A&M this week, they might be able to recover with a convincing victory against Colorado or Iowa State on Dec. 3 in Houston in the Big 12 championship game. Or, if Texas stomps Texas A&M and then loses to Colorado/Iowa State, the Horns could gain an at-large invitation to the BCS and the Rose Bowl by still being ranked in the BCS top two.
Understandably, fans from Penn State, LSU and Virginia Tech would be crying bloody murder, but with only one-loss teams to choose from, Texas and USC would deserve equal consideration.
The only flaw here would be if Texas lost to both Texas A&M and Colorado/Iowa State, but we won't go there.
A loss by either Texas or USC would ignite the old debate on whether a late loss is worse than an early loss. As Nebraska proved in 2001, losing late does not disqualify you from playing for the national title.
The odds of either Texas or USC losing appear to be low, so this debate may be totally unnecessary. But since all of us here love talking college football, this is as good of topic as any.
Comment away.
--TR--