By JOHN TUCKER, Scripps Howard News Service

This will forever be remembered as the Year of the Scandal in college football.

From the seedy off-season revelations involving several University of Miami football players and convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro that resulted in multiple player suspensions and a self-imposed bowl ban ...

'Tis the season of bowl snubbings...

If college football fans have learned anything over the 14-year history of the Bowl Championship Series, it's that Santa doesn't run the show, Scrooge does.

And somebody almost always gets Scrooged.

No players and no fans feel the pain and frustration worse than at Oklahoma State.

Come Sunday night -- with a bit of luck -- Alabama could be sitting in the same coveted spot it occupied in the BCS standings before losing to No. 1 LSU, 9-6, in overtime last Saturday.

"May no act of ours bring shame

To one heart that loves thy name,

May our lives but swell thy fame,

Dear old State, dear old State."

Singing the Pennsylvania State University's alma mater may never be more emotional -- more heartbreaking -- than it will be Saturday at Penn State's noon football game against Nebraska in State College, Pa.

Forgive the folks in Tuscaloosa this weekend when their Southern hospitality gets overshadowed by the mutual hostility that comes with the rivalry between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama.

With a likely BCS title shot at stake, the intensity surrounding Saturday night's slugfest in Bryant-Denny Stadium is magnified tenfold.

Paradoxical performance effects - choking under pressure - that lead to stunning upsets like the one in Norman, Okla. last Saturday are what make college football's quest for the national championship so fascinating.

BCS standings have arrived, and without any big surprises. LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma are one, two and three.

Oklahoma State comes in at No. 4, but again, and not surprisingly, the computers have succeeded in creating some disparity by ranking the Cowboys No. 1.

There will, however, be surprises on the road ahead.

Will there be any big ones?

Under the guise of fans, college football cynics and hypocrites alike always seem to rear their ugly heads during bowl season.

They telegraph themselves by spouting nonsense like, "There's only one bowl game that means anything."

Maybe it shouldn't have come as a big surprise that the top three unbeaten teams in the Bowl Championship Series standings -- Oregon, Auburn and TCU -- all struggled against unranked opponents last weekend.

The road to the BCS title does tend to get more treacherous toward the end.

If you feel the earth trembling Saturday, it's probably due to the magnitude of four tremendous college football collisions involving eight of the game's most prominent programs.

Talk about a perfect storm: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 18 Penn State; No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 12 Miami; No. 10 Oklahoma vs. No. 17 Florida State; and Notre Dame vs. Michigan.