Utah Would Be a Perfect Champ

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IF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS wants to show it has guts, it should name Utah this year's college football champion.

In protest of the infamous BCS, the news agency withdrew its poll from consideration for the flawed system. So, it names its own champ a day after the BCS title game. There's been no better year than this to make the AP's point.

Two excellent teams will square off this week when Oklahoma faces Florida. But that cloud you see hanging over the game is the "What if?" factor. As in, "What if Texas had been given the spot in the Big 12 title game over Oklahoma, which had the same record as the Longhorns but lost in the Red River Shootout?"

And what if Southern Cal wasn't punished for a faulty perception that the Pac 10 was weak? The Trojans also sport a one-loss record and have one of the best defenses in college football history. No one can convince me Oklahoma or Florida would fare much better than Penn State did against USC in the Rose Bowl.

That brings us back to Utah. It didn't have one loss. The Utes were a perfect 13-0 and slammed Alabama — No. 1 much of the year — in the Sugar Bowl.

We'll never know how Utah could beat Oklahoma or Florida, because it wasn't given the chance to compete against either. But the Utes did something no other team did: go undefeated.

That sounds like championship material to me.

Photo By Chris Graythen/Getty Images