UCLA Has No Margin for Error

Only in the flawed world of college football could a team’s fate be decided smack in the middle of its season. Does baseball hold the World Series in July? Are NBA contenders eliminated in January? Of course not.

But here we are in October, and UCLA is looking at a three-game stretch that could determine whether the Bruins play in the Rose Bowl for the championship Jan. 3. It’s as if college basketball dropped March Madness in favor of December Delirium.

If the 6-0 Bruins lose any of these challenging games--beginning Saturday at Stanford, and continuing at Washington State, then back home against Oregon--they’ll probably drop out of contention for the national championship.

They’re ranked third in the new BCS standings, behind Oklahoma and Nebraska. Those teams face each other Saturday, so UCLA could move into one of the coveted top two spots that will earn a Rose Bowl berth. But the Oklahoma-Nebraska loser probably will get a shot at redemption in the Big 12 championship game.

Some people contend that college football doesn’t need a playoff system because the entire season is one big tournament. They don’t get the meaning of the word. Tournaments place teams on equal footing, with any advantage such as home field or higher seeding earned through regular-season accomplishments. College football teams compete in different conferences with different standards (some have championship games, some don’t) and even a different number of games.

So here, for lack of a better system, is UCLA’s tournament. Stanford (4-1), which just ended Oregon’s 23-game home winning streak. Undefeated Washington State, averaging 44 points a game. And Oregon, the preseason pick to win the Pacific 10 Conference title.

“We’ll find out what kind of team we’re going to have,” tailback DeShaun Foster said.

“I was sitting down thinking today, this is going to be a tough three-game stretch for us,” linebacker Robert Thomas said. “We play three good teams, probably three of the best teams in the Pac-10 three weeks in a row. We’ve really got to stay focused, play one game at a time. Every game we’re playing could be for the championship.”

One benefit for the Bruins is that the coaches and older players experienced these “elimination” games when the team made its run at a national championship in 1998 that evaporated at Miami in the last game of the regular season.

Enough time has passed since that painful loss to the Hurricanes that UCLA Coach Bob Toledo can joke about the lessons he learned that day.

“I’ve learned you better tackle,” he said. “When they’ve got a guy like Edgerrin James, you can’t miss 35 tackles. You’d better have 11 guys on the field; we had 10 three times. You’d better play at home, so your officials can officiate it. I don’t know what you learn. You learn that it’s no fun to lose.”

Most of all, Toledo came away with this: “I learned that I’m not so sure that I’m in favor of the BCS.”

If multiple one-loss teams are contending for those top two spots in the rankings, good luck trying to find an objective, rational way to determine who belongs.

As it stands now, college football is the only sport that practically demands perfection for an opportunity at the championship. That’s just fine with UCLA quarterback Cory Paus.

“I wouldn’t want to be in a national championship game if we lost a game,” Paus said. “Every team wants to win every game they play.”

Even an undefeated season isn’t enough for teams from smaller conferences. As strong as the Pac-10 has been this year, Toledo believes an unblemished record ought to be good for a spot in the Rose Bowl. But with the conference so deep, that might be too much to expect.

Some choice: Be perfect, or be left out of the championship game.

“It’s like when we had that 20-game win streak [in 1997 and 1998],” Toledo said. “You could feel the pressure building. I mean, the pressure just mounts and mounts. Everybody expects you to have your ‘A’ game every play and every week. That’s hard to do. We preach it; but when you look deep down inside, kids are kids, like pros are pros. Sometimes they don’t always bring their ‘A’ game.”

The good thing for the Bruins is that the pieces are all coming together. The defense has been consistent from the first game, and its confidence grows every week. Even if Foster didn’t put up big numbers against California on Saturday, he still looked like Heisman Trophy material. Paus is coming off his best performance of the season and he’s getting better.

Remember, he sat out almost seven games because of injuries the past two seasons. Although he said he has a firm grasp on UCLA’s offense, he still is learning the nuances of different defenses.

Toledo would be happy to know that his players are taking his message of dedication to each game to heart.

“We know what’s at stake,” Thomas said. “We know what our goals are, what we need to make the goals. That’s why we maintain our focus on our next opponent. We play Stanford, then we play ... Washington State. We know Washington State doesn’t matter if we don’t beat Stanford.”

The sidebar developing out of Monday’s media session was footwear. Paus said the reason he played so well Saturday was because he switched back to the mid-top shoes he wore last year. And Toledo walked in with a pair of yellow, ostrich-skin boots. Maybe that’s why he offered up such a down-home saying as: “If you look too far down the road, you get hit in the side of the head.”

There’s nothing to look ahead to for the Bruins. The playoffs are here.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com