BOWLNANZA!: The Sugar Bowl

#4 LSU (10-2) vs. #13 Notre Dame (10-2)

LSU was viewed as one of three national title contenders from the SEC in the preseason; while they lost to the other two (Auburn and Florida) in the beginning half of the season, the Tigers nonetheless played up to the level of expectations, winning their last 6 games and defeating surprise top-15 team in Arkansas to cap the regular season. The Tigers are as well-rounded as anyone in the country, as LSU boasts an offense that's top-10 in scoring and top-20 in yardage, while the defense is in the top 5 of both of those categories. And if the offense played as well as anyone in the country, and the defense played as well as anyone in the country, the stats show that LSU had about the best season of anyone in the country. The Tigers were the much more consistent team in the Auburn game, but came just short in a 7-3 loss, and the Florida game was essentially handed over via turnovers. The only game all year that LSU was outgained in was, ironically, that one they won against Arkansas, and even that was only a 32-yard differential. We could have easily seen LSU as the team facing Ohio State in the national title game.

Notre Dame was seen, pretty universally, as a top-3 team in the preseason, and pretty much a lock for the BCS. And after a disappointing 10-2 season that saw the Irish get humbled against Michigan and USC, Brady Quinn miss out on the Heisman he had locked up in August, and UND struggle to beat UCLA and Michigan State, the team was forced to settle for...a BCS bid. Oh. The offense is what makes Notre Dame go, as the Irish are #12 in scoring and #22 in yardage. As for the defense, the offense is what makes Notre Dame go. There's not much to say about Notre Dame's season that wasn't mentioned in that sentence above. The Irish lost by 20 or more in each of their true tests (although the USC game was close statistically), and their biggest win is...Georgia Tech? Penn State featuring often-imploding Anthony Morelli in HIS first test? Come-from-behind efforts against underwhelming Michigan State and UCLA? I could go on. Well, no I couldn't, they don't really have anything else close to a big win. Okay, maybe Navy or Purdue, I guess. I don't know.

Notre Dame's offense is what's going to keep them in this, since that's where they hold the advantage over LSU. Except for, you know, LSU scoring more points and gaining more yards than Notre Dame while playing a SEC schedule instead of Army and Stanford. Hoo boy. And that Notre Dame defense isn't stopping anyone, so expect that trend to continue. Plus that LSU defense is even better than Michigan, especially against the pass (LSU: 145.5 pass yards/game, Michigan: 211.1,) and we all saw how that Michigan game went. On the "blowout potential" scale, this is probably ranks between Louisville-Wake and OU-Boise. But seeing as Boise actually pulled off the win, I suppose UND has a chance. Just don't bet on it.

My Pick: LSU
Confidence (out of 5): 3