What If?

By Jasmine Watkins

College football is a game of what 'ifs.'

(AP Photo/Mark Terrill)

What if Kansas State and Oregon hadn’t lost on the same day? What if Notre Dame had lost to USC Saturday night? What if UGA beats Alabama in the SEC title game next Saturday?

What if, what if, what if?

We could play this game all year. But it’s about what does happen, as opposed to what if or what could. The fact that it’s so unpredictable is what makes football on the college level so fun to watch. The excitement and the heartbreak on the players’ faces are what college fans live for. That and wanting your alma mater to win it all.

This year, in the driver’s seat is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. For the first time, in a long time, the No. 1 team doesn’t belong to the SEC. But the silver lining to this whole scenario is that after the SEC title game is played, there will be a team from the Southeastern Conference in the BCS Championship game.

Yes, after the Crimson Tide were taken down a few pegs by Texas A&M a couple weeks ago, the SEC is back in the driver’s seat yet again.

Alabama is projected to beat UGA, but what if Georgia wins out? Do they have the offensive power in Murray and his receivers to penetrate the Notre Dame defense headed by Manti Te’o?

If the Crimson Tide does follow suit and end up beating the Dawgs, can they keep the score close enough with their offense? The Alabama defense has never been a problem but the Fighting Irish is a horse of a different breed.

Since we’re playing a game of what ifs, what if Notre Dame beats the winner of the SEC Championship and thus ending a streak of 7 BCS Championships won by a member of the SEC? Would that signal the end is near for them as a power conference? Not likely.

After Georgia’s game against Georgia Tech, senior safety, Bacarri Rambo stated that the win was nice but there are bigger and better things on the team’s agenda.

“We’ll enjoy this win for a couple of hours, but we have to get our minds back on our goal, and that’s to get to Miami, and Alabama is in our way,” Rambo told ESPN. “We just have to get better and work on them.”

Georgia and the rest of Bulldog nation don’t think they will have to play the game of what ifs because they plan to end the run of the Crimson Tide in Atlanta on Saturday.

It’s hard to remain in the realm of reality when the questions of what ifs surface. It’s fun to think about the different possibilities when a particular team is involved. Even though the player’s are taught to go into the season as one week at a time, it is the fan that ends up straying and playing a game of 20 questions.