If slipper fits, at least try it on

Missouri playing West Virginia in New Orleans on Jan. 7 for the national title would be unexpected and unusual, but it would not be the end of civilization.

Here’s a thought: Missouri vs. West Virginia . . . why not?

First, Missouri has to beat Oklahoma, and that hasn’t happened since 1998.

Asked after Saturday night’s 36-28 win over Kansas about the prospect of being No. 1, Missouri defensive back Castine Bridges was smart enough to say, “We are not worried about it, because we won’t be No. 1 if we lose the next game.”

This was the fallout after a weekend in which No. 1 Louisiana State and No. 2 Kansas fell out:

Missouri moved to the top spot Sunday in the second-to-last Bowl Championship Series standings and West Virginia rose to No. 2. Ohio State, at No. 3, is ready to pounce if either of the top two falters, while two-loss Georgia, which can’t even win its conference, might sneak into the title game if both top teams lose.

Ohio State vs. Georgia would no doubt satisfy the traditionalists who like recognizable helmets and hummable fight songs.

But wait a minute here: The knock against college football is that you never get Cinderella stories because everything is skewed toward the powerhouses.

So here college football sits on the precipice of a truly oddball game, and people are still going to complain?

If you can accept that the BCS is about as imperfect a system as was ever conceived, then you can’t be surprised it can spit out Missouri-West Virginia.

If you know there is not going to be a playoff this year, next year, or the one after, then what’s wrong with this goofball matchup?

It would be better with a playoff, but so would your life be if the boss doubled your salary. And neither is likely to happen.

Maybe USC and Georgia are the best two-loss teams out there right now, but no one should complain about getting Ida-hosed.

Missouri and West Virginia would have played the system and matriculated to the top.

Missouri, unlike Kansas, didn’t play Dodge City ball.

Missouri beat Illinois and Mississippi in nonconference play and absorbed a tough loss at Oklahoma. The Show-Me State then showed me, you and everyone else it was better than Kansas.

If Missouri beats Oklahoma, it will get what it deserves: a trip to the BCS title game.

West Virginia has been a top program for years now. It doesn’t play the toughest schedule, but it did beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl two years ago.

Rich Rodriguez may be the best coach in the country and runs the most envied and copied spread offense in the business. Opposing coaches flock to West Virginia to learn Rodriguez’s secrets, and it’s one of the reasons teams are scoring 50 and 60 points every weekend.

If your favorite team does not make it to this year’s BCS title game, blame your favorite team. Curse the bad-luck gods.

USC is not in the national title game because it lost to, um, Stanford.

The Trojans did not get there last year because they lost to, um, UCLA.

Georgia might not be there because it lost to South Carolina, a team that finished 6-6.

LSU lost two games in triple overtime. Too bad.

Ohio State lost at home, to Illinois. If Ohio State had not lost at home, to Illinois, the Buckeyes would be title game-bound . . . and they might be anyway.

We have sympathy for Oregon, which seemed primed for a national-title berth before losing star quarterback Dennis Dixon to a knee injury that also wrecked his Heisman Trophy candidacy.

We feel for Oklahoma, which lost to Texas Tech after losing starting quarterback Sam Bradford to a concussion. But Oklahoma also lost to Colorado.

There are breaks in life -- some of them are bad.

So what if it does end up Missouri vs. West Virginia on Jan. 7?

Deal with it.

Weekend wrap

Hawaii (11-0) moved up to No. 12 in the BCS standings and will earn an automatic major-bowl berth if it can hold that spot through next weekend. The Warriors are the only unbeaten major-college team left but still must play Washington in Honolulu. If Hawaii makes the BCS cut, it probably will end up in the Sugar Bowl against the SEC champion, LSU or Tennessee.

If USC beats UCLA on Saturday, the Rose Bowl is going to get a terrific game. It will be USC vs. Ohio State unless the Buckeyes are lost to the BCS title game. If that happens, the Rose Bowl could pair USC vs. Georgia in a game of great interest. In this scenario, Georgia probably would be No. 3 in the BCS and USC might be as high as No. 5. The game would pair 10-2 teams from, arguably, the two best conferences this year: the SEC and Pacific 10. Georgia last appeared in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1943.

The internal Rose Bowl debate would center on whether it could pass on No. 3 Georgia to take 9-3 Illinois to preserve the Pac-10/Big Ten partnership. Illinois is No. 15 in this week’s BCS standings. The Illini must finish in the top 14 to be considered for an at-large berth unless there are not enough qualified teams to fill the at-large slots. In that case, the BCS pool will be expanded to teams ranked in the top 18.

If USC loses to UCLA, the Pac-10 representative will be either UCLA or Arizona State. UCLA gets in if it beats USC and Arizona beats Arizona State. UCLA would be the first five-loss team to play in the Rose Bowl. If UCLA were to be paired against Georgia, it would be a rematch of the 1943 game in which Georgia prevailed, 9-0.

Arizona State would be making its first Rose Bowl appearance since the 1996 season, when the Jake Plummer-led Sun Devils were seconds from claiming the national title before losing to Ohio State.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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Play it forward

Five things to look for this week in college football:

1. It’s UCLA at USC on Saturday at the Coliseum in a game that -- what’s this? -- actually means something. USC earns the Rose Bowl berth with a win, and UCLA gets in with five losses if it wins and Arizona State loses. The Rose Bowl isn’t supposed to play favorites in these matters, but we can’t think of any reason it would be cheering for UCLA.

2. Don’t relax yet, Hawaii. The Warriors moved up to No. 12 in the BCS, the position that assures them a major-bowl berth. One problem: The season is not over. Hawaii has to beat Washington in Honolulu on Saturday and hope it is still No. 12 on Sunday.

3. California needs to beat Stanford to clinch its first berth in the BCS title game. Oh, wait, that’s how it was supposed to go. Instead, it’s just another Big Game between mediocre cross-bay rivals that will make headlines only if one team can repeat the razzle-dazzle play that ended the game 25 years ago.

4. This year’s “Backyard Brawl” between Pittsburgh and West Virginia will be the backyard bawl in Morgantown if the Mountaineers can’t take care of business. West Virginia needs one lousy home win over a lousy 4-7 rival to secure a trip to the BCS national title game. No way West Virginia screws this up, right?

5. Put your paws together for Missouri over Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game if you don’t want Ohio State to backdoor its way back into the BCS title game. But it’s looking pretty good for Ohio State. Missouri hasn’t defeated Oklahoma since 1998, and the Tigers suffered their only loss this year to the you-know-who Sooners.

-- Chris Dufresne