College Football: Can Tide Tame Tigers?

Bryant-Denny Stadium in Alabama, the setting for No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama Saturday

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There's always talk that the SEC is the best conference in college football, and even when there's an outlier SEC loss, like Georgia to Boise State early this season or when Utah whomped Alabama a few seasons ago -- someone can explain it away.

Of course, there's also the fact that the Southeastern Conference has won the last five BCS championships. But this season, SEC chest-thumpers don't have to work themselves up. That's because the two best teams in the country -- No. 1 LSU (8-0) and No. 2 Alabama (8-0) -- not only hail from the SEC but they may be among the best teams those schools have fielded in their storied pasts.

This Saturday evening at 8 (CBS), it all comes to a boil at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in an SEC West showdown for the ages. Heck, there is talk that the loser of this game could still play for the national title.

But that very fact, that somebody has to lose this game, stokes the hope of BCS wannabees, such as unbeaten Oklahoma State, Stanford, Boise, and one-loss Oregon and Nebraska. What could make it even more intriguing would be if the winner of this game somehow lost in the SEC championship game, although that's not likely this year.

This game is so huge that the TheStreet's College Football Corner has asked Joe Deaux and David Moss to make a case for each team, sort of like that mock court -- "The Final Verdict" -- that "Judge" Rece Davis holds every Saturday night with "counsellors" Lou Holtz and Mark May on ESPN. Well, sort of.

The Corner last week stumbled again on its picks, going 1-4 to fall to 25-17 on the season. Now, on to the game and a couple others.