Reactions may be as polarizing for the Sugar Bowl as they were for the Pac-10’s 5-0 romp through Bowl season: Alabama’s a fraud. Florida is going to get worked by Oklahoma. Utah would have been Cinderella if there had been a playoff. We could go on and on.

Alabama fans don’t seem to know what hit them, but the result reinforced the No. 1 reason we need a playoff. Utah was playing for perfection. Alabama was playing a game that meant nothing. The inter-team scrimmage in the spring where players are fighting for starting jobs meant more than this game. Alabama’s season ended with the loss to Florida a month ago. The Tide trailed 21-0 in the first quarter before many fans had left Bourbon street to stumble into the Dome. “I don’t think we gave them their due respect coming into the game,” is how Alabama’s RB Glen Coffey put it.

The only value we take away from this game is that Utah fended off Alabama’s advances when the score was 21-17 in the third. In six days, the final votes for No. 1 will be cast. Depending on the Oklahoma-UF result, will USC receive any votes? What about perfect Utah, which defeated teams from the Big 10, Pac-10, and SEC this season?

“I know where I’m voting us. I’m voting us No. 1. End of story,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said afterward.

“I don’t know why they wouldn’t deserve that consideration,” he added later. “Somebody has to explain to me why they wouldn’t. There is only one undefeated team in the United States of America right now in Division I football, and it’s these guys right here.”

If we had a vote, we would, too. Our only hope for change is enough people who have votes do the unexpected: Vote for a team that didn’t play in the BCS Championship game.