I hate Rick Reilly almost as much as Joe Buck

 TBL-The Alabama Crimson Tide will play for the BCS Title, despite not winning their conference or even reaching their conference title game. Esteemed ESPN columnist Rick Reilly was peeved.

Sorry. Alabama playing in the title game is bonkers. A team that didn’t even make its conference title game will be playing in the national title game? It’s like Rick Perry withdrawing from the primaries and then going up against President Barack Obama.

But imagine how idiotic this system is through LSU’s binoculars. While the Bayou Bengals are beating their brains out against Georgia in the conference title game this Saturday at the Georgia Dome — aka, the crime scene — Alabama will be enjoying chicken wings and “Tosh.0″ reruns and resting up.

He has an argument to go with that fresh cultural lexicon. The problem, as it is for any rematch critic, is who will play in this game instead of Alabama? Oklahoma State, who still must beat Oklahoma, are a plausible team. The trouble is when Reilly moves beyond the Cowboys.

Or what about Stanford-LSU? Like the Houndstooths, the Cardinal only have one loss, theirs to an Oregon team faster than 4G. You don’t think a Stanford team led by Heisman Trophy shoo-in QB Andrew Luck wouldn’t make any SEC defense wonder whether to scream or go bowling?

Or LSU vs. one-loss Boise State? The Cowboys fell to TCU by just one point. You SEC fans remember Boise State, right? It went down south in Week 1 and beat Georgia? Georgia, the team that’s one win from claiming your most holy and exalted SEC title?

So, Alabama should not play for the BCS title because they did not win the SEC. Yet, Reilly offers the Stanford Cardinal (did not reach Pac 12 title game after losing to Oregon) and the Boise State Broncos (lost the MWC title when they lost to TCU). It makes total sense, if every orifice is plugged up with ridonkulous money.