By RON HIGGINS
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Louisville of the Big East Conference is ranked No. 3 in the Bowl Championship Series standings and is unbeaten heading into tonight's game at Rutgers.

Florida, Auburn and Arkansas are all one-loss teams from the Southeastern Conference. And there are one-loss teams from other BCS conferences, such as Southern Cal and Cal in the Pac 10, Texas in the Big 12, Wisconsin in the Big Ten, Wake Forest in the ACC and independent Notre Dame.

The great debate is whether Louisville, if it goes unbeaten, should advance to the BCS national championship game to play probably the Ohio State-Michigan winner.

There's the argument that though the Big East has improved this year, it isn't as challenging from top to bottom as most of the other BCS conferences, particularly the most physically punishing leagues such as the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.

In short, Louisville's critics say that the Cardinals No. 3 status in the BCS is undeserved, that if the 'Ville were a member of the SEC, Big 12 or Big Ten, there's no way it would be unbeaten. The SEC has five teams ranked in the top 13 of the BCS, led by No. 4 Florida and No. 6 Auburn.

"I was on a team that went 12-0 and was denied an opportunity to play for the national championship," said second-year Florida coach Urban Meyer, who guided Utah of the Mountain West to that perfect season in 2004. "I thought we had one of the best teams in the country who could play with anybody on any given day.

"But to think that Utah team could make it through the Southeastern Conference undefeated, well anybody with enough understanding about college football and enough common sense knows that wouldn't happen.

"Louisville looks like a fine, well-coached team. But week in and week out, the struggles you go through in a conference like the SEC, or the Big Ten, certainly would have a wear and tear on you. It would be tough for any team in the country to go through this league undefeated."

The SEC has five of its teams ranked in the top 15 in total defense in the nation and 11 of 12 in the top 51, with the worst SEC team (Mississippi State) at No. 70.

Including Thursday night's game at Rutgers (ranked No. 2 nationally in total defense), Louisville has faced just four teams ranked in the top 30 defensively.

"Louisville has played extremely well, but I think anybody could see the schedule in the Southeastern Conference is tougher than the schedule in the Big East," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said.

There's the argument that since then-Big East champion West Virginia beat then-SEC champion Georgia, 38-35, in last year's Sugar Bowl, it's enough proof that Louisville does indeed play in a worthy league.

LSU coach Les Miles said one game, particularly in a bowl game at a neutral site, doesn't mean much. To Miles, the true test of a championship team is the week-to-week mental and physical challenge in front of crowds of 80,000 to 100,000.

"Bowl games are played in conditions much less (severe) than maybe even we played in last Saturday (LSU won at Tennessee 28-24)," Miles said.

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said he feels the solution to the year-to-year BCS flap is to have the coaches poll select the top four teams and have a playoff.

"If the coaches can't pick the top four teams in the country at the end of the year, then there's something wrong with us," Tuberville said.




http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/16186

So Louisville may not be able to go through the SEC undefeated....well neither could any of the teams in the SEC. So what makes them more deserving than Louisville? Oh yes, if Kentucky and Miss St have top 50 defenses, Louisville and WVU torched them up to the tune of an average of 50 points. So much for defense, I think the SEC's defenses look good because they play each other's terribly offensive offenses.

WVU vs. UGA

Neutral site: Atlanta?

I don't think UL could go undefeated in the SEC, nor do I think that O$U or UM could. The fact is the B10 champion and UL deserve to go to the title game by virtue of going undefeated in a BCS conference. The BE is weaker than the SEC but so is every conference in America. The BE is as strong or stronger than any conference besides the SEC.

SO#1 Wrote:Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said he feels the solution to the year-to-year BCS flap is to have the coaches poll select the top four teams and have a playoff.

"If the coaches can't pick the top four teams in the country at the end of the year, then there's something wrong with us," Tuberville said.

Sorry tommy, but with as much vagisil as you and your buddy Mack Brown need, I have absolutely zero confidence in you to pick the 4 teams that are truly the best!

Some above sort of commented on this, but here's this....IF UofL ends up 12-0 and Auburn 11-1, even if both sides admit the teams would flip flop records if they flip flopped schedules, that doesn't logically mean the 11-1 team deserves a title shot anymore. Yet they deem it so, void of all logic.