Alabama/Notre Dame

Few would dispute that Alabama is generally considered to be the best college football team in the country. Though losing a slew of starters to the NFL after last year's national championship season -- they don't appear to have lost a beat. The Tide continues to roll.

They have a pretty tough game coming up this weekend @ LSU, but if they can get by that, chances are good they'll run the table and qualify for a spot in another national championship game.

Assuming that happens, what gets interesting in who their opponent might be. The Oregon Ducks are currently undefeated and have a tough game of their own @ USC. If they manage to handle the Trojans, they might run the table as well.

Kansas State is still unbeaten, have a very impressive win @ Oklahoma on their resume, and are steamrolling everybody that gets in their way. They could win out.

Then of course there's Notre Dame. They've played a pretty tough schedule and have yet to suffer a loss. The Irish just seem to keep getting better and better.

So what happens if Oregon, K State and ND all finish the season undefeated? One will get the nod to face Alabama, and the other two will have a justifiable beef over being excluded. So who would be the "chosen" one?

No doubt, the pollsters will have their say, as will the computers that also get to vote. Supposedly, a lot of things are taken into consideration. How teams fared against mutual opponents, strength of schedule, and a bazillion stats that nobody but the computers can comprehend anyway would likely all figure in.

But if the scenario plays out that way, yours truly suspects it's a foregone conclusion. That's because the one thing all the statisticians and computers don't, or can't take into account is the TV factor. Those pesky network executives are a very powerful force behind the scenes. And what do they crave the most? Ratings.

With all due respect to Oregon and K State, an Alabama/Notre Dame game for all the marbles would be the stuff ratings from heaven are made of. The viewing audience would be off the charts. The price of ad time would spike. In turn, the TV folks make more money. It always seems to boil down to that, one way or the other, doesn't it?

So Oregon and K State better hope somebody finds a way to derail the leprechaun express in the next few weeks. Because if they don't, despite ND currently being BEHIND both those schools in the polls, I'll bet you a box of Lucky Charms the pollsters, computers, and TV people will magically find a way to have Notre Dame do some leap-frogging and wind up at #2 when the regular season ends.

We'll see. I'm just saying...........