Bowl Championship Series

Start with the grass stains. He left the field wearing the most splendid of grass stains, long swaths of green stretching over his shoulders, across his chest, down his back, the badge of a linebacker. Now check out the number. He is No. 15, but his jersey was tugged and twisted so much, sometimes it looked as if he were No. 11, sometimes 17, the wrinkles of a lineman. Finish with the face.

Was it really that bad? Didn't it all, in the end, after five months, a thousand howls and 34 bowls, work out for the conspiracy theorists, playoff advocates and, most of all, Florida? Gators Coach Urban Meyer, sleepless after a night of celebrating his team's Bowl Championship Series victory against Oklahoma, spent Friday morning posing with national title trophies presented by the USA Today voting coaches, the Associated Press and the Football Writers Assn. of America.

Welcome to the Rose Bowl of the future, a place where the Utahs, Brigham Youngs and Hawaiis of the college football world are welcome. Sort of. According to a modification in the Bowl Championship Series rules, the Tournament of Roses could be forced to take a non-BCS team in the next few years.

NEW ORLEANS -- Meet Jacob O'Hair, the Californian in Monday night's Bowl Championship Series title game. If you are into tracking the progress of home-state players, better memorize that name now. You won't hear it a lot Monday night, if at all, when O'Hair and Louisiana State play Ohio State in college football's national championship game. "A reporter asked me the other day what I hoped for in publicity," O'Hair said here Friday. "I told him I hoped for nothing." And he meant it.

Don't believe the pregame hype for Monday's Bowl Championship Series title game that claims Ohio State does not have a chance against Louisiana State because of the Buckeyes' lack of speed. Faster players can make a difference, but they don't mean much when they are not in position to make plays. Just ask Florida, which supposedly had a huge advantage in speed over Michigan but was handled by the Wolverines, 41-35, in the Capital One Bowl.

NEW ORLEANS -- After months of twists, turns, detours, U-turns and upsets, tonight's Bowl Championship Series title game has arrived. Ohio State (11-1) versus Louisiana State (11-2) in the Superdome is not necessarily the game everyone pined for or expected. USC versus Georgia might have done more to move the applause needle. Ohio State versus LSU is just the game that happened. Tonight is the relief you get when the fishing line gets untangled. Tonight is the BCS at its best and worst.

NEW ORLEANS -- Ohio State getting thumped by a Southeastern Conference school in the Bowl Championship Series title game is no longer a sentence, it's a ritual. Last year it was Florida doing the dishonor, Monday night it was Louisiana State, which spotted Ohio State a 10-0 lead and then switched the stop light to "geaux" en route to a 38-24 win in front of 79,651 at the Superdome.

NEW ORLEANS -- Despite continued resistance from two conferences and a major bowl, incoming Bowl Championship Series coordinator John Swofford says college football leaders will continue to explore a modified playoff. "I think the subject deserves that," Swofford, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, said Monday at a Football Writers Assn. of America meeting. College football officials have ruled out an expanded "NFL-style" playoff.

NEW ORLEANS -- Monday night, inside the giant eggshell known as the Superdome, a fun time was had by all. OK, a bit more fun by Louisiana State fans, whose team won the national championship by beating Ohio State, 38-24. This was college football's showcase, the BCS title game. It was No. 1 Ohio State versus No. 2 LSU, one of the ultimate big deals in sports. There were flags and bands, exuberant fans dressed in reds and grays and purples and golds. Lots of attractive sights and sounds.