College Football Playoffs: Sooners are undisputed national champs

In what was expected to be a high-powered game between two great offenses, Oklahoma played great defense and got a 44-yard field goal from Garrett Hartley with 13 seconds remaining to lift the Sooners over USC 16-13 in the CBSSports.com College Football Playoffs.

Down 13-10, the Trojans tied the game on a 50-yard field goal by David Buehler with less than two minutes remaining, but the Sooners turned to an unlikely hero to guide the team down for the game-winning kick.


Oklahoma is the 2007 national champion ... if we had a playoff system. (Getty Images)
Joey Halzle, who was forced to come off the bench after Sam Bradford was injured in the second quarter, came up with two big plays to get the team into field goal range.

Halzle hit Maclom Kelly on a 12-yard pass to keep the drive alive and then on third-and-7, Halzle scrambled 25 yards down to the USC 34. He hit Kelly on another short pass to set up the kick.

Halzle finished the game 17-of-25 for 191 yards and a touchdown, while Bradford was 9-of-13 for 104 yards. Allen Patrick had 67 yards rushing, while DeMarco Murray added 49 yards on the ground.

USC’s John David Booty struggled against the Oklahoma defense, throwing for just 220 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception. Fred Davis led the way with three catches for 51 yards. Linebacker Keith Rivers had nine tackles, four for a loss, a sack and an interception.

Now, of course, this is all make-believe, but this is what it would have been like to have a 16-team playoff.

At the end of the season, no questions asked.

Under this scenario -- Oklahoma would have beaten BYU, Florida, No. 1 Ohio State and USC.

A true national champion, which was decided on the field. Not based on the opinions of sports writers and computer rankings.

We might end up with a great national championship game between LSU and Ohio State next Monday, but that’s not the point. Because under the current system, we don’t know who the two best teams are. Maybe it’s USC, Oklahoma or Georgia, but we’ll never know because of the BCS and its idiotic way of determining a "fake" national champion.

Congrats Oklahoma, you proved it in our bracket. You are our national champion.