Utah pulled of one of the biggest upsets so far in the college football season last night when the beat the no. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide 31-17. The Utes impressive victory came on the side of the ball that received the least attention this season by the way of the defense. The defense had an amazing 8 sacks and forced 3 turnovers in an unexpected dominating performance. Many may not understand the significance of this win, but it will affect the rest of college football around America. The Utes capped off the only undefeated season in the NCAA Division I this season with a perfect record of 13-0 and their huge win over Alabama will be felt for many months to come. The win for the Utes was the victory the small schools around the nation needed to change the way polls rank teams from here on out.

Utah comes from a non-BCS conference and received the invite to the Allstate Sugar Bowl by an at-large bid. The Utes were squared off with what was the best team in college football for much of the latter part of the season. Alabama closed out the second half of the regular season holding onto the #1 ranking. It wasn’t until the week after the regular season in the SEC Championship when the Crimson Tide received their first loss of the season against the Florida Gators. The loss in the SEC Championship game knocked the Crimson Tide out of their chance for a National Title and into the Sugar Bowl against Utah. Utah entered the game as a 10 point underdog with 89% of the nation picking Alabama to win. The Utes would pull of the impossible and dominate the team that went through the potent SEC undefeated this season. The win for Utah marks huge implications around college football for the “little-guys.”

Utah can now make the claim legitimately that they deserved to play for a National Championship. Utah only received the #9 ranking in the nation despite their undefeated record against a fairly weak schedule. However, now this will make voters think twice before keeping an undefeated team out of a National Championship game when both teams in the Title game have at least one loss. Utah has made a loud noise for the smaller schools around college football. The next time a Boise State, a BYU, or another less popular football team ends a season undefeated they will have a firm argument to play for a National Championship. After all, Boise State and Utah both have won the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in the last 3 years. Everyone remembers the statue of liberty handoff that led Boise State running back into the end zone in over time to give the Broncos the victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. The small schools are starting to make a name for themselves as consistent threats in the Bowl Games and it will not be long before voters start to acknowledge their late season success.

College Football enthusiasts and fans have longed desired for a playoff system in the NCAA. Many people believe that type of system would really benefit teams from the SEC and perhaps the Big 12 with their records in postseason play over the years. The SEC especially feels they would benefit the most from a playoff scenario considering every year that has at least two teams in BCS Bowl games. However, Utah exposed what we could call a myth of the SEC status amongst the College Football totem poll. A playoff system might benefit the smaller conferences and non-BCS schools as much as it would the national powerhouses across the land. Utah’s win opens the eyes for many people in college football especially in the days leading to the National Championship game with Florida and Oklahoma. Florida has been perceived as the favorite to win and with Utah’s dominate performance over Alabama one must wonder if that will affect the way the betting public acts on the game. Alabama nearly beat Florida and the Gators reputation as the best in the nation may have diminished with the Utes victory last night.

Utah victory will perhaps have people thinking twice about the strength of schedule a team has during the regular season. Is it Utah’s fault or any other team for that matter that they have an undefeated season and the rest of the conference plays poorly that season? A team should be rewarded for an undefeated season, but nobody could have expected Utah to beat Alabama. This gives all the more reason to institute a playoff system considering the BCS has been exposes to yet another weakness. With the system we have today, there can actually be co-national champions for those that are not familiar with the college football postseason. In recent years, teams have won the national championship game while another team may end the year ranked #1 giving both teams a share of the National Title. While Utah will likely not jump all the way to #1 this season, the Texas Longhorns do have that chance. The Longhorns beat the Oklahoma Sooners this season in their lone loss. However, Oklahoma is in the National Title proving once again while the BCS System has failed miserably. If the Sooners beat Florida in the National Championship, Texas will have the possibility by voters to receive the # 1 ranking in the polls. While the scenario is unlikely to happen, another college football season will end without truly knowing who is the very best across the nation. Utah can definitely make their argument along with a cast of other one loss teams.

Earlier in the week I discussed how crazy the BCS has gotten keeping the Texas Longhorns out of the Big 12 Championship game. Instead of Texas, Oklahoma is playing in the Big 12 Championship despite the Longhorns 45-35 win this season. The national media has assumed that the winner for the SEC Championship game would go on to play in the BCS National Championship. However, taking a closer look at the computer ratings things may be even more bizarre.

The Florida Gators are ranked #2 in the AP top 25 polls but come in as the #4 team in the BCS rankings. The popular speculation is that Florida would go play in the National Championship given they could defeat #1 Alabama. Although, with last weeks jumbled BCS rankings keeping Texas out of the Big 12 Championship a win for Florida still might not be enough to put them in the National Championship.

Texas is ranked #3 in the BCS Standing slightly behind Oklahoma at #2. The Sooners jumped the Longhorns last week in the standings by .0128 and that put the Sooners into their conference championship game over Texas due to the Big 12 tie breaking rules. The Big 12 rule for tie breakers state that the highest rated team in the BCS will win the tie breaker. So despite Oklahoma not be able to defeat Texas head to head, they will still represent the Big 12 South in the championship game.

Can you imagine how mad the state of Texas has been this week? Texas has been kept out of the Big 12 Championship game and their chance to earn a spot in the National Championship game was taken away as well. Texas has been ahead of Oklahoma since the BCS ranking were released until last week which mattered most. Last week BCS standings determined the fate for the Longhorns, considering the Big 12 Championship will be held this weekend. Texas again felt like their chances have been stolen from them and there was nothing they could do to prevent it.

Not so fast Texas faithful, taking a closer look at the BCS rankings things might actually not be so bad. Keeping Texas out of the Big 12 Championship may have in fact benefited them as much as playing and winning the championship game. Florida trails Texas in the BCS Standing by .0328 a pretty fair margin. Florida is an 8.5 point favorite to defeat the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide. Assuming Florida does win the SEC Championship, it may not be enough to jump the ahead of a Texas team that does not have to play this weekend. The Longhorns computer ranking should not change while Florida’s ranking may not be able to overcome the .0328 deficit placing Texas and most likely Oklahoma in a rematch for the National Championship.

Florida trails Texas by .160 in the computer rankings for the BCS while holding pretty even with Texas in the Harris and USA Today polls. If the Gators do pull off the victory over Alabama, they will definitely get some help from the Harris and USA Today polls which are human voters. However, the computer rankings that has to do with other things like strength of schedule will still favor Texas, but by how much? The Gators would have to receive a big help from the computers to overtake the Longhorns.

Then again things may not be that controversial after this weekend if Alabama wins and Oklahoma loses. However, that will be tough for both of those things to happen. Florida as mentioned before is more than a touchdown favorite to win their game while Oklahoma is a two touchdown favorite to win the Big 12. In a perfect world, Alabama and Missouri will win and the BCS will again dodge another missile targeted to take down the BCS rankings forever. However, this year it will not happen. The chances of both Alabama and Missouri winning are bout as good as Ohio State beating an SEC team in a championship game. Even if Alabama can pull of the win over Florida, Texas fans will still feel like they have been robbed of an opportunity to play for the title. An opportunity they have earned.

Be sure to check out the free and premium college football picks from the expert handicappers at Bankroll Sports.  The Bankroll Sports handicapping duo of Henry Ness and Wade Sterling will have premium releases for a variety of this weekend’s Conference Championship games.  Click here to purchase premium service picks from our handicappers.  Also, be sure to check out our ncaa football top 25 previews for this weekend’s college football matchups.