The Georgia Bulldogs: It's a Dawg-gone Shame

It seemed promising for a few hours. Fourth-ranked Georgia looked on as Missouri and West Virginia, ranked 1 and 2 coming into the weekend, both went down hard on Saturday, precluding their title chances. In almost any other year, this would have elevated the Bulldogs up the ladder and placed them in the BCS national title game with Ohio State.

The 174 poll voters had another scenario in mind. LSU, coming into the weekend at number 7, catapulted over Georgia to win a spot in the BCS game. Although the voters' reasoning isn't public knowledge, it likely has a lot to do with the fact that LSU smoked Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference 21-14.

But there is no rule that says you must win your conference to participate in the title game. Voting with that reasoning is dangerous, according to Georgia coach Mark Richt. He is coming to terms with the team's spot in the Sugar Bowl against 10^th ranked Hawaii on New Year's Day, but he expressed his frustration at the process.

"It's a very, very imperfect system. It becomes a beauty contest at a certain point," Richt said. "Basically a rule that didn't exist got imposed on us, which I didn't think was fair."

Georgia remained fourth in the Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday as well as the coaches poll and the Harris Interactive poll. LSU vaulted into the 2^nd place spot from 7^th in the coaches poll and from 5^th in the Harris poll.

Richt will once again try to ignite the team by informing his players that they would wear the black uniforms they debuted in last month's win over Auburn. Georgia will again request that fans also wear black in an attempt to "black out the stadium".

The various bowl matchups bring to a close a regular season in college football that left its fans reeling from motion sickness. No team stood out in the season to truly shine above the others. The whole season was so uneven that there were even calls to cancel the BCS game altogether. The rankings pleased no one this year, including the other teams trampled by the LSU vote: the Sooners, Warriors, Trojans, Jayhawks, and Hokies.