Bless this BCS mess

Ohio State is playing Louisiana State for the national title on Jan. 7 in New Orleans and 12-0 Hawaii earned a Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl bid after rallying from 21 points down to beat Washington early Sunday morning.

And nobody should have a gripe -- nobody.

You could say Hawaii’s schedule was softer than poi and that the Warriors’ wee-hour victory knocked poor Arizona State out of an at-large berth in the Bowl Championship Series -- both statements are true.

Hawaii, though, did what a lot of the mainland giants couldn’t do -- win a game when it had to. With a BCS bid on the line, the Warriors fought back from a 28-7 deficit to beat Washington on a late -- and we mean late -- touchdown pass by quick-trigger Colt Brennan.

“The significance for this school is unprecedented,” Hawaii Coach June Jones said Sunday of his school’s earning a BCS berth.

You could say two-loss Missouri, which finished No. 6, deserved a BCS bid ahead of No. 8 Kansas because Missouri beat Kansas.

Saying it doesn’t mean we buy it.

Georgia Coach Mark Richt had a beef, wondering why voters decided last week his team could be No. 4 but decided this week it couldn’t play for the national title.

“I do think we were unofficially disqualified for not winning our conference,” Richt said.

Solution: Win your conference.

You can argue Ohio State and LSU backed into this year’s BCS title game but that’s only because everyone else backed out.

“The brass ring was there for a lot of different people to grab,” BCS Coordinator Mike Slive said Sunday. “Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t.”

This isn’t like 2000 when Miami beat Florida State but Florida State got to play Oklahoma for the title, or the next year when Oregon finished No. 2 in both polls but No. 4 in the final BCS standings.

There are not any hold-your-nose issues like there were in 2003, when USC finished No. 1 in both polls but No. 3 in the BCS, and the next year when Auburn went undefeated and was denied a title-game bid.

This year was wacky but no investigation is required.

When No. 1 Missouri and No. 2 West Virginia lost on Saturday, forfeiting their title-game hopes, all West Texas-in-August broke loose.

Ohio State jumped to No. 1 in Sunday’s final BCS standings and LSU moved up five BCS spots to No. 2. Virginia Tech finished third, followed by Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri and USC.

The BCS bowl lineup collapsed into place:

Rose: USC vs. Illinois, with Granddaddy keeping the Pac-10/Big Ten partnership intact by replacing Ohio State with another Big Ten team.

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia, a fall-back bowl for the Mountaineers after their stunning loss to Pittsburgh.

Sugar: Georgia vs. Hawaii, an interesting, must-watch prelude to the BCS title game in New Orleans.

Orange: Kansas vs. Virginia Tech, a game with marginal national interest but certainly a plum for Kansas, especially at archrival Missouri’s expense.

As for alleged grievances, well, put them in the already stuffed BCS complaint box.

Fact: every school that thinks it should be in this year’s title game actually had the chance to be.

In final BCS standings order:

No. 3 Virginia Tech? Lost to LSU, 48-7; blew a 10-0 lead in the final 2:13 in a home loss to Boston College.

No. 4 Oklahoma? Led Colorado, 24-7, in Boulder on Sept. 29 before letting the game slip away. Also lost to unranked Texas Tech.

No. 5 Georgia? Lost to South Carolina and Tennessee, which denied the Bulldogs a chance to win their own division of the SEC.

No. 6 Missouri? Lost twice to Oklahoma, and the second one wasn’t even close.

No. 7 USC? The Trojans might be the best team in the nation right now but this isn’t the NFL. You can’t go 9-7 and still get to the Super Bowl. Until there is a playoff in college football, which might be never, all games count. Pete Carroll is 23-0 in November but it was an Oct. 6 home loss to 41-point underdog Stanford that took him out of this year’s chase.

No. 8 Kansas? The Jayhawks did not win their own division of the Big 12, did not leave the state for a game until Oct. 20, did not play Oklahoma, Texas or Texas Tech and lost to Missouri, which Oklahoma beat twice.

Arizona State, this year’s BCS No. 11, finished 10-2 but was run off the Thanksgiving table by USC. The Sun Devils did get a bit of bad luck early Sunday morning when Hawaii came back to beat Washington.

That put Hawaii into the BCS and knocked Arizona State out of the Fiesta Bowl and into the Holiday.

This season is strewn with hard-luck stories.

Oregon appeared headed for a national title berth before its quarterback was lost for the season.

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a concussion against Texas Tech.

West Virginia quarterback Pat White picked a bad night to dislocate his thumb.

Ohio State didn’t deserve it, either, right? The Buckeyes lost at home to Illinois. Their season ended on Nov. 17. No team should get into a title game from the couch.

“We watched a lot of great teams,” Buckeyes Coach Jim Tressel said. “There were some amazing games.”

And, suddenly, Ohio State is playing in one?

Why not?

Saturday was the third time this year No. 1 and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll lost on the same weekend. The No. 2 team lost on three consecutive weekends and four of five. The top 10 schools ranked in the preseason AP poll lost a total of 29 games.

LSU lost to Kentucky and Arkansas, both defeats in triple overtime, but LSU did win the SEC title in Atlanta.

“We only hoped after that game that somehow, some way, there might a way for this football team to play in this game,” Tigers Coach Les Miles said.

West Virginia was the somehow.

Missouri was the some way.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

BCS matchups

BCS TITLE GAME

Ohio State (11-1) vs. Louisiana State (11-2)

Jan. 7, Louisiana Superdome, 5 p.m., Channel 11

ROSE BOWL

USC (10-2) vs. Illinois (9-3)

Jan. 1, Pasadena, 2 p.m., Channel 7

FIESTA BOWL

West Virginia (10-2) vs. Oklahoma (11-2)

Jan. 2, Glendale, Ariz., 5 p.m., Channel 11

ORANGE BOWL

Kansas (11-1) vs. Virginia Tech (11-2)

Jan. 3, Miami, 5 p.m., Channel 11

SUGAR BOWL

Hawaii (12-0) vs. Georgia (10-2)

Jan. 1, New Orleans, 5:30 p.m., Channel 11

*--* FINAL STANDINGS 1. Ohio State 9588 6. Missouri 7763 2. Louisiana State 9394 7. USC 7637 3. Virginia Tech 8703 8. Kansas 7589 4. Oklahoma 8572 9. West Virginia 6628 5. Georgia 8392 10. Hawaii 6468 *--*