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Still a Bunch of LosersAnother round of defeats confirms it: There are no champions in college football this year.

By Josh Levin
Posted Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, at 1:06 PM ET

Last week, I made the case for canceling college football's national championship game. This weekend, the case made itself. When West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh and Missouri lost to Oklahoma on Saturday, it should've convinced every doubter—including all the angry Mountaineer and Mizzou fans who e-mailed me—that no team deserves to win it all. Nevertheless, plenty of pundits have chosen to attack the BCS for matching once-beaten Ohio State and two-time loser LSU in this year's title game. Rather than blaming the victim—a put-upon algorithm that's forced, annually, to make an impossible decision—the nation's football fans should admit defeat. No matter who your favorite team is, you can make no reasonable argument that it deserves to win anything. As Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel points out, "The BCS did not choke away a national title berth against a four-touchdown underdog the last night of the season. The BCS did not lose to Oklahoma, rise all the way up to No. 1—then lose to the Sooners again."

But Mandel, and everyone else, errs in suggesting that the solution to this mess is to play additional games. This season at least, any kind of playoff system—including a mere one extra game—would be a punishment to fans who've already watched every team in the country stumble and fall again and again. Why do we need extra games to tell us what we already know?

The problem here isn't the BCS. It's the impulse to crown a champion when we all know that none exists. Will I be overjoyed to watch LSU play Ohio State on Jan. 7? Absolutely. Will I delude myself into thinking they're playing for a championship? Absolutely not. I might be an irrational Tiger fan, but I'm not that irrational.

Need more convincing? My original case for canceling college football's championship game is reprinted below.

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Last Friday, my beloved LSU Tigers lost to Arkansas in triple overtime, blowing their shot at a national championship. At least, that's what I assumed. By the following afternoon, college-football pundits were saying that somehow the Tigers still had a chance: If likely title-game participants Missouri and West Virginia both lose this weekend (admittedly an unlikely scenario), LSU could squeak into the title game against Ohio State.

Even a Louisianan homer like me can recognize that LSU, now a two-time loser, doesn't deserve to play for any kind of championship. Then again, neither does Ohio State—the Buckeyes have no wins against top-tier competition and lost to a mediocre Illinois team at home. West Virginia doesn't have a great case, either—the Mountaineers blew it against middling South Florida and, like Ohio State, lack an impressive win. Missouri, which has the strongest résumé of any contender, still gave up 41 points in a loss to Oklahoma. A month before the BCS title game, we already know college football's national champion: nobody.

Since every team has proven itself undeserving of this year's title, there's only one truly fitting way to end the season, by calling off the BCS title game. Vacate the title as they do in boxing, give everyone a trophy as they do in youth soccer—but don't make anyone national champion.

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Josh Levin is a Slate associate editor. You can e-mail him at .
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