2007-08 NCAA College Football Top 25 final rankings including bowl games

2007 NCAA Top 25 rankings - FINAL

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NCAA Top 25 FINAL (through games of 1/7/08)

BCS = Bad Champion Selection

The BCS has named LSU the National Champions. But there are at least four, if not 5 other teams equally deserving.

The LSU Tigers defeated an Ohio State team that coasted through a weak Big 10 schedule, then fell apart for three quarters in a "National Championship" Sugar Bowl game, losing by a final score of 38-24.

The resulting championship completely ignores the rest of the BCS games (plus the non-BCS Cotton Bowl), all but one of which were complete blowouts. After such an interesting and exciting season, fans deserved better than what the BCS provided. All but one of the major bowl games were dull and uninteresting.

Let's take a look:

In the Rose Bowl, the USC Trojans completely humiliated Illinois, the only team to beat Ohio State during the regular season, 49-17.

In the Sugar Bowl, Georgia shut down Hawaii, a team with the most productive offense in the nation, 41-10.

The Fiesta Bowl promised to be a competitive game, until West Virginia proved that the Oklahoma Sooners were nearly complete frauds with no speed and no defense. The Mountaineers prevailed, 48-28.

In the only close BCS game, the Orange Bowl, Kansas played as well as they could, knocking off a very solid Virginia Tech team, 24-21.

And in the Cotton Bowl, Missouri ran roughshod over Arkansas, one of two teams to defeat LSU, 38-7. The Mizzou also displayed a tremendous, overlooked defense.

This leaves six teams that could lay claim to the national championship: LSU, USC, West Virginia, Georgia, Missouri and Kansas. The Buckeyes, Hokies and Sooners will have to settle for much lesser honors. Hawaii should be banned from bowl games period. Their singularly inept performance against Georgia was an embarrassment for all of college football.

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LSU, USC, West Virginia and Georgia all finished with two losses and didn't lose to any of the other top six teams. Kansas' only loss was to Missouri, on a neutral site, by seven points. As for the Mizzou, their two losses were to the same team, Oklahoma, and we've already seen that they are somewhat of a mirage.

The only logical thing to do would be to have the four top teams in a playoff. Flip coins or draw straws to determine which teams play each other. They're all good. The winners go on to play for the real national championship. Obviously, that's not going to happen, though the BCS committee is discussing some options.

Any proposal would have to wait at least two more seasons, beginning with the 2010 season and 2011 bowl games.

In the meantime, college football will have to suffer along with an antiquated poll system and poorly designed seeding system (BCS). For this year at least, Downtown Magazine awards the co-championship to four teams: LSU, USC, West Virginia and Georgia.

Our final Top 25 rankings for 2007-08 follow:

FINAL including Bowl Games through 1/7/08

Rank Team Record

1 USC 11-2

1 LSU 12-2

1 West Virginia 11-2

1 Georgia 11-2

5 Missouri 12-2

6 Kansas 12-1

7 Virginia Tech 11-3

8 Ohio State 11-2

9 Oklahoma 11-3

10 BYU 11-2

11 Tennessee 10-4

12 Boston College 11-3

13 Texas 10-3

14 Cncinnati 10-3

15 Auburn 9-4

16 Texas Tech 9-4

17 Florida 9-4

18 Tulsa 10-4

19 Michigan 9-4

20 Oregon 9-4

21 Illinois 9-4

22 Clemson 9-4

23 Wisconsin 9-4

24 Virginia 9-4

25 Arizona St. 10-3

Honorable Mention: South Florida, Connecticut, Kentucky, Arkansas, Wake Forest, UCF, Boise St. Hawaii

Copyright 2007, 2008, Rick Gagliano, Downtown Magazine. All rights reserved. Downtown Magazine is located in the Uinted States of America and is not affiliated with the National Football League or the NCAA. For more information, contact us here. Use of this site is for entertainment purposes only.