Rose Is Bush With Nebraska

After weeks of hearing everyone else debate the wilting of their Rose Bowl, our town has finally spoken.

About 100 members of the Nebraska football team heard it at Staples Center Friday as the Lakers played the Toronto Raptors.

Some Cornhuskers were introduced before the game.

BOO!

Some were introduced at halftime.

BOO!

Some were shown on the video screen late in the game.

BOO!

“We were very surprised,” said sophomore fullback Judd Davies Saturday. “I guess either these people don’t think we should be here, or they just don’t like us.”

It being impossible not to like the earnest and polite Cornhuskers--they practiced in cold rain Saturday and didn’t complain once--the answer is the former.

Many locals don’t think Nebraska should be here.

Myself included.

While the boos were an unfairly harsh greeting for college kids on a field trip, the fans’ beef is as real as an Omaha steak.

Nebraska’s presence here, while benefiting the economy and uplifting the community, has lowered the value of our most valuable game.

In exchange for the Rose Bowl’s Jan. 1 date and afternoon start, the bowl championship series promised it an undisputed national championship game.

The Rose Bowl was conned.

The smoking gun is a husk.

If Nebraska defeats unbeaten Miami Thursday, it should still not be national champion.

That title should go to the winner of the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl featuring one-loss Oregon against Cornhusker-hacking Colorado.

Of course, in one poll, it has already been decided. Perhaps thinking it was a fancy shoe company, the coaches have already sold out to the BCS. Their poll is contractually bound to give the national title to Thursday’s winner.

“This is a national championship game, right?” asked tackle Dan Vili Waldrop of Wilmington Banning. “So if we win, aren’t we national champions?”

Not so fast. The media is different. The Associated Press poll can still think for itself. The championship could still be split.

I don’t vote. If I did, of course, I would vote USC No. 1 every week in thanks to all those wonderful fans who admired my wardrobe this fall by chanting, “Plaschke’s socks, Plaschke’s socks.”

But among those media members who vote, if Miami loses, they have no choice.

A victorious Oregon wins the national title because its one loss wasn’t by 26 points in the biggest game of the year.

A victorious Colorado wins because it is the team that beat Nebraska by 26 points.

No matter how many single digits are flapping Thursday night, the best Nebraska should legitimately finish here is second.

Accounting, of course, for all those boos.

In a town that demands drama, the Rose Bowl is that projected blockbuster that shows up, five years later, with a questionable plot and one big star.

While Nebraska shuffles, shrugs and hopes.

“If we beat Miami, a team that is No. 1 by everyone, it makes it hard to think we would not have earned No. 1,” Coach Frank Solich said.

Solich ducked out of Saturday’s rainstorm, still soaking wet, to talk as long as anyone wanted to talk.

He has set the tone for a team that is approachable, personable ... and just a little bit irked.

He said Nebraska would not make any excuses if it was not awarded an undisputed national title.

“We’ll go by how it’s viewed by everyone else,” he said.

Unlike Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti, who shamefully compared the BCS to cancer, Solich said he would not publicly embarrass himself or his university if the system made them share.

“We’ll stick with whatever happens,” he said.

But it’s clear he thinks columns like this one are a bunch of hooey.

“If we win, then everybody has one loss, and we would have played 11 games as well as anyone else,” he said.

It’s also clear that he’s wrong.

As those booing Laker fans would tell you, championships are not about an entire season’s worth of games. They are about only the final ones.

Nebraska’s last loss, which occurred Nov. 23, is far worse than Oregon’s last loss or Colorado’s last loss, both of which occurred Oct. 20.

“But Colorado shouldn’t even be in there, they have two losses, they are not entitled to any part of the national championship,” said kicker Josh Brown.

That would be a good point, if Colorado had not whipped Nebraska in what was essentially the first round of a postseason tournament.

“But Colorado let a Fresno State team come into Boulder and beat them, then lost by 32 points to Texas,” said linebacker Jamie Burrow.

A tad sensitive about Colorado, are we?

Burrow failed to note that the Buffaloes rebounded to defeated Texas by two points in the Big 12 championship game.

As for Oregon, there can be no such quibbling.

With one loss like Nebraska, with a better team than Nebraska, with our clear West Coast bias working overtime, the Ducks should be here instead of Nebraska.

But in the end, it won’t matter.

Here’s guessing that Oregon defeats an overly rested Colorado team that has lost its steam.

Here’s guessing chip-laden Nebraska defeats a flighty Miami team that is not used to its muscle.

And here’s hoping the battered Rose Bowl, bless its heart, still manages to crown a Pacific 10 Conference team as a national champion.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.