re: Did the LSU-Alabama Rematch Really Kill the BCS?

Another interesting part of the article. What could have been for Miles and this program :-(

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The game impacted the future of Les Miles just as much, as the former LSU coach himself admits. He thinks the Tigers would have beaten Oklahoma State in the title, and that he might still be the coach if they had. LSU had escaped Tuscaloosa with a 9–6 overtime victory during the regular season, but Alabama’s title-game romp began its current seven-game winning streak in the rivalry, the first five of those coming with Miles on the LSU sideline. Miles was fired in September 2016, one month into his 12th season. “Oklahoma State could have played in that game and changed the course of history in my mind,” he says. “I enjoyed Mike Gundy and am happy the success they’re having [at Oklahoma State], but I’m betting they don’t stop us and I’m betting our pass rush is unstoppable. I think we’re going to win that game. I just do.”

A second national title for Miles in four years would have boosted LSU’s recruiting haul, the coach says, to further “stay in a competitive heap with the guy [Saban] doing the best job in college right now.” That’s why Miles hates to admits the fact that the BCS did get it right in 2011. “Alabama was easily the second-best team in the country,” he says.

His biggest regret in a coaching career that spans nearly four decades remains his team’s preparation leading up to the rematch. He wishes he had better motivated his players to play a team that they’d already beat. “The head coach, me, did a poor job,” he says.

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