Undefeated Alabama, Florida and Texas all deserve to be No. 1

So much for editorial freedom. I asked this week if I could rank Alabama, Florida and Texas all No. 1 and draw a thick line between college football's elite and the rest of the above-average teams, but was denied. I knew the Associated Press would make me assign a number to each team for my poll ballot, but figured my own employer might give me a little leeway. Alas, my editors forced me to put the big three in order.

Which is a shame, because after watching Alabama beat LSU in Tuscaloosa this weekend, I believe the Crimson Tide deserve to be ranked No. 1. But neither Texas nor Florida did anything to deserve a drop in the polls, so I had to leave the teams where they were last week. Fortunately, if all goes according to plan, Alabama and Florida will meet on Dec. 5, and the winner of that game will face Texas on Jan. 7. So we'll get an answer eventually.

Some folks in Cincinnati, Fort Worth and Boise may not find that answer satisfactory, but the people who run college football don't care what those people think. They also don't care what you or I think. In fact, if we wind up with an Alabama-Texas or Florida-Texas BCS title game, the powers-that-be will hail the matchup as proof that the BCS works perfectly.

We all know it doesn't, but until Stewart Mandel becomes a conference commissioner and brings the Mandel Plan to the masses, we're stuck with it.

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