NEW ORLEANS — Bringing an end to the college football season but not to the controversy that engulfed it, Louisiana State defeated Oklahoma, 21-14, on Sunday night to win the Sugar Bowl and the Bowl Championship Series national title.
LSU will share title honors with Rose Bowl winner USC, which was named Associated Press national champion later Sunday night.
The BCS was created in 1998 specifically to head off a shared championship, and had done so each season until this one. But USC's exclusion from the designated championship game -- despite a No. 1 finish in both traditional polls -- set off an outcry about the computer-assisted BCS.
Michael Tranghese, the outgoing BCS coordinator, acknowledged the system's flaws and said Sunday that significant changes could be considered before next season.
Tranghese said the conference commissioners who run the BCS would strongly consider a rule stipulating that any team finishing No. 1 in both traditional polls would automatically qualify for the BCS title game.
"What we have is an imperfect system," said Tranghese, who also serves as Big East Conference commissioner.
The BCS will consider a provision that requires title-game participants to have won their conference title, a feat that Oklahoma did not accomplish this season, Tranghese said. An additional "championship game" after the four BCS bowls are played might also be considered.
But Tranghese stressed that college presidents remain opposed to an NFL-type playoff system.
"If you want a full-blown playoff, you're going to have one of two things: You're going to have to play during exams or into the second semester," Tranghese said. "And our presidents have said, 'We're not going to do either of those things.' "
Many thought the BCS controversy and USC's ranking atop the AP poll took some sheen off the "national title" Sugar Bowl -- but that view was not shared by the championship-hungry fans of LSU, who were expected to party deep into the night on Bourbon Street in celebration of the school's first national title since 1958.
The Tigers (13-1) needed two strong defensive stands in the final three minutes to hold off a surging Sooner team that had trimmed a 21-7 fourth-quarter deficit to 21-14 with 11:01 remaining in the game.
Oklahoma (12-2) had a first down at the LSU 12-yard line with three minutes left, but Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jason White threw four incomplete passes, the last one off Mark Clayton's fingertips in the end zone with 2:46 to go.
