November 5, 2011: Louisiana State vs. Alabama, "The Game of the Century"

November 5, 2011: Louisiana State, ranked Number 1, takes on Number 2 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Complicating things is the fact that Alabama coach Nick Saban had previously led LSU to a National Championship. Les Miles, known as "The Mad Hatter" for his signature white cap and odd-but-successful play-calling, was not LSU's head coach.

It is one of several college football games that has gotten billed as "The Game of the Century," and it goes to overtime, where Alabama's Cade Foster misses a field goal, while Drew Alleman makes his to give LSU a 9-6 victory.

But, in one of the several scenarios that made people hate the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and demand a Playoff system (which we now have), 'Bama ended up Number 2 in the national rankings anyway, and got a rematch with LSU, and dominated it, 21-0, to win the National Championship. It made Saban the 1st coach ever to win National Championships at 2 different schools.

It shouldn't have happened. The November 5 matchup decided the Southeastern Conference Western Division title. LSU then beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Alabama couldn't even win its Division, never mind its Conference. If you can't win your Conference Championship, that should eliminate you from consideration for the National Championship.

The fact that Alabama had finished Number 2 in the BCS rankings -- a computerized system, not a poll -- should have been irrelevant. The November 5 game should have been considered an elimination game. So the team that finished Number 3, Oklahoma State, should have been raised to Number 2, and played LSU in the National Championship Game.

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November 5, 2011 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:

* Number 3 Oklahoma State beat Number 17 Kansas State, 52-45 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State won the Big Twelve Conference title.

* Number 4 Stanford beat Oregon State, 38-13 at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. Stanford went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to Oklahoma State.

* Number 5 Boise State beat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), 48-21 at Sam Boyd Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Whitney, Nevada. But they blew their chance at the Bowl Championship Series the next week, by losing to Texas Christian University (TCU).

* Number 6 Oregon beat Washington, 34-17 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Oregon won the Pacific-Twelve Conference title, but lost to Southern California 2 weeks later, forcing a tie in the Pac-12 standings with Stanford. Despite having the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stanford, having beaten them, Stanford ended up with the higher BCS ranking, and went to the Playoff. Oregon had to console themselves with the usual prize for the West Coast's top team, a trip to the Rose Bowl.

* Number 7 Oklahoma beat Texas A&M, 41-25 at Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium in Norma, Oklahoma.

* In another big SEC game, Number 8 Arkansas beat Number 10 South Carolina, 44-28 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* Number 9 Nebraska were upset by Northwestern, 28-25 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Number 11 Clemson were idle. They won the Atlantic Coast Conference title, and went to the Orange Bowl, where they beat West Virginia.

* Number 13 Michigan were upset by Iowa, 24-16 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. Michigan still went to the Sugar Bowl, and beat Virginia Tech.

* Number 19 Wisconsin beat Purdue, 62-17 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin won the Big Ten Conference title, and went to the Rose Bowl, but lost to Oregon.

* Number 20 Arizona State were upset by UCLA, 29-28 at the Rose Bowl outside Los Angeles in Pasadena, California.

* Number 24 West Virginia were upset by Louisville, 38-35 at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.

* Notre Dame beat Wake Forest, 24-17 at BB&T Field (now Truist Field) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Notre Dame went to the Citrus Bowl, where they lost to Florida State.

* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Army, 24-14 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs; while Navy beat Troy, 42-14 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* And Rutgers beat South Florida, 20-17 at High Point Solutions Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The baseball season had ended 7 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series. And the NBA team owners had locked the players out, so the season didn't start until Christmas Day (a day whose revenue, more TV than arena-grounds, the owners did not want to lose). But 11 NHL games were played:

* In an "Original Six" game, the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 5-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Prudential Center. Adam Henrique scored the winning goal with 3:32 left in overtime. That season, in the Playoffs, Henrique would score an even bigger overtime winner. And then a bigger one than that.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 9-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 in a shootout at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* In another "Original Six" game, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-0 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks, 5-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 in a shootout at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. David Legwand scored the winning goal with 2:07 left in overtime.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion, 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.