There's no way to decide the national championship if LSU happens to lose in the title game on January 9. And that's the issue facing the college football landscape knowing that the BCS system is broken and there's no real way to fix it.
Ralph Russo of the Associated Press writes about this today when analyzing the situation. He writes, "Now, instead of Sunday being a coronation there's another BCS controversy: Should Alabama get another shot at the only team that beat the Tide, even if that means an all-SEC title game and a matchup that will surely play far better in the South than anywhere else? Or should the Cowboys, who beat five teams ranked in the last BCS standings and whose only loss was a double-overtime upset on the road to Iowa State, get the nod?"
"If you want the best two teams in college football to play then there has to be a format to decide that," Alabama coach Nick Saban said to ESPN about the BCS. "If you want a regional game that matches up people from different parts of the country you can't say 'Let's have the best two teams play.' It's not really up to me. I can't really be objective here. We do have a dog in this hunt. That's my opinion."
Alabama has a case to make that they deserve another chance. Oklahoma State does as well. That doesn't include other teams like Stanford who also warrant consideration. At this point, there's no way to debate this and come out feeling good about the outcome. Instead, it's a broken system that shows again and again just how flawed it is.