And that's the way the syndicate rolls

I'm currently in trial down on the island and my brain is fairly fried by the time I sit down to work after putting my girls down for the night. I had a picture of the sun setting over Galveston Bay that I was going to run but, for some reason, my phone has decided not to make that photo available at this time. Ditto for the shot of sunset over Pearland (admittedly not as cool).

Some night in the upcoming week, LSU and Alabama will play (once again) in the "national championship" game staged by the B(owl) C(artel) S(yndicate). Now, if memory serves me right, LSU already beat Alabama this season. And, it seems to me, that game took place in Tuscaloosa.

So what happens if Alabama wins the rematch? Does that make them the best team in the country all of a sudden? Wouldn't LSU have an argument that nothing's been decided? Isn't a loss at home worse than a loss at a neutral site? And what about that little detail that Alabama not only wasn't good enough to win their conference, they weren't even good enough to win their division.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State beat Stanford the other night in the desert. Oklahoma State beat more ranked teams this season than Alabama. Oklahoma State beat more teams with a winning record than Alabama. Oklahoma State didn't play a lower division team in order to pad their record this season - Alabama did.

What was the difference between the two teams this year? First, Alabama lost at home to LSU while Oklahoma State lost on the road against Iowa State just a couple of days after the coach of the women's basketball team, and one of his assistants, were killed in a plane crash. Think that might've played a role in how a bunch of teenagers played that night in Ames? Second, Alabama began the season ranked higher than Oklahoma State. That was an advantage that the Cowboys could never overcome.

And that brings me to my final point - it's ridiculous that a preseason poll can determine who plays for the national championship at season's end. The voters decide where to rank a team based on how well they played the year before and how well the voter thinks they might play this season. This is college football - not the NFL - and teams undergo drastic change from season to season. Alabama's team this year was a different team than last year's Crimson Tide; and the same applies to Oklahoma State. But this faulty logic is now the basis for Alabama getting an undeserved invite to play LSU while Oklahoma State can only watch.