Why do college football fans even care if their team is screwed out of a BCS bowl game?

With the final BCS Standings in, and the BCS bowl games set, naturally, there are some teams that got screwed out of a BCS bowl, and fans who are more than upset about it.

I can see why, I suppose. Playing in a BCS game is a very big deal--I know, as a Pitt fan, I've been more than disappointed with the football program's recent failures to secure an automatic berth from the mediocre Big East conference--but at the end of the day, unless your team is playing in the actual BCS title game, what does it matter what bowl game they're in?

I know there is the prestige and money that goes along with a Sugar Bowl berth as opposed to, say, a berth in the BBVA Compass Bowl, but, as fans, we don't get to share in the money or prestige, and when all is said and done, both bowls are nothing but glorified exhibition games.

Sure, it's going to be pretty awesome to see 3rd ranked Oklahoma State take on 4th ranked Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, but the only thing either team can hope for is to finish 3rd in the country. I would think that would be more frustrating than it would be satisfying.

But, that's the problem with big time college football. It's so unbelievably awesome every season. The ratings are high all year, the games are exciting and compelling, the rivalries are intense and full of history, the passion is more than palpable among the loyal followers of their teams, but at the end of each season, fans are always left asking "what if?"

This year, we're going to see the top ranked LSU Tigers take on the 2nd ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Nationa....whoops, BCS National Title Game on January 9th.

As far as match-ups go, it's pretty darn good, and it's a re-match of a pretty hyped 1-2 match-up from earlier in the season (LSU won, 9-6). But like I said, Stanford and Okla. St. aren't too far removed from being in that game--Oklahoma State finished something like .0009 points behind Alabama in the final standings.

Alabama couldn't even beat out LSU in their section of the SEC conference, yet, they get to play them for a National Championship.

I'm not saying LSU and Alabama aren't the two best teams in the country, but with 100-plus schools playing division one college football, you'd think they'd eventually get around to having more than two teams playing for the right to call themselves "number one."

Oh well, I suppose this is another in a long line of blogs complaining about the BCS system. I guess you can call me a sorry cliche.

With most things in life, when a lot of people are pretty vocal about something being wrong, it almost always is.

We live in a sports world where, theoretically, the 68th best division I Men's college basketball team has a chance to win a National Championship each and every season, but the 4th best college football team in the land has no chance at all.

Seems like something is wrong there.