I am not sure as to whether Alabama beating LSU would catapult it over LSU into #1 if the BCS ranking were to decide the matter. I would think so if Alabama convincingly beat LSU. But let’s say that Alabama beat LSU by the exact score and circumstance that LSU beat Alabama during the regular season. Then, I think a lot of people would vote for LSU, others for Alabama and still others for the winner of the Oklahoma State versus Stanford game.
In the old days, pre-BCS, we often wound up with multiple national champions. In those days, college football consisted of ten games with the possibility of one bowl game. Today, twelve games is the norm, with the possibility of a conference championship games and a bowl game. Some people are argued for a playoff system; possibly with four teams and the elimination of conference bowl games, so as not to add to an already long season for people who are supposed to be students.
Nowadays, we have multiple teams bowl ineligible among the highest ranking teams, embarrassments like Penn State going to a bowl game, a 6-7 team going to a bowl game, and official records having to be re-written because of multiple recruiting violations. Yet, is the game more exciting today than it was twenty years ago, when bowl games were officially post-season exhibition games and we had to deal with the uncertainty of who really is the national champion?
I tend to favor a playoff where the top 8 teams play it off to the end. The best four bowls could be used as the host sites(say the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange or Cotton).
On the other hand, the current BCS system is fun and lends itself to a lot of discussion around the water cooler!