It's simple: this time around, the credibility of the BCS depends on Jason Gesser's ankle.

You don't have to be Lee Corso to figure out USC deserves a BCS bid over Notre Dame. And you don't have to be Lee Corso to figure out that deserving a bid doesn't have much to do with the Orange Bowl's decision. They must sell tickets, and the charms of Miami will do little to attract Trojan fans, who can look out their window and see an ocean.

	Jason Gesser's health may decide who plays in the BCS bowls.

If the Trojans get an automatic bid by finishing in the top four of the BCS rankings, the Orange Bowl's hand may be forced. Iowa is available for the Orange Bowl, and Hawkeye fans would fill every hotel room they can get. However, if the Orange Bowl takes Iowa, that leaves a potential USC-Washington State rematch in the Rose Bowl. Insert yawn here.

If Gesser, the Washington State quarterback who suffered a high ankle sprain in the Cougars' 29-26 loss to Washington on Nov. 23, can't play against UCLA on Saturday, the Bruins have a much better chance of winning. A UCLA victory would send USC to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 champion. Iowa and Notre Dame would be BCS at-large invitees. And the BCS would live happily ever after.

If Gesser plays, and Washington State wins, prepare for wailing and loud gnashing of teeth.

And, if Miami doesn't beat Virginia Tech, you have our permission to ignore all of the above.

God Bless Ford Frick
As the commissioner of baseball in 1961, Frick demanded that an asterisk be attached to the single-season record of 61 home runs set by Roger Maris. The Yankee right fielder had the temerity to break the single-season home run record of the greatest Yankee of them all, Babe Ruth. Maris hit his home runs in a 162-game season. Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, a 154-game season.

Frick's asterisk cheapened Maris's achievement, and, as the years went by, made the commissioner look stingy. It overshadowed every other action Frick took during his tenure, and eventually, the asterisk was removed from the record book.

As this 12-game football season comes to a close, my e-mail box is flooded with the single-season records being set across the nation. For every Cody Pickett, the Washington quarterback who broke the Pac-10 passing record of 3,818 yards in 11 games (Pickett went on to finish with 4,186 yards), there are dozens of players who broke a record or reached a statistical threshold in 12 games.

Missouri quarterback Brad Smith became only the second quarterback in Division I-A history to throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in one season. Smith finished with 1,029 yards, thanks to the 30 yards he gained against Kansas State in the last game of the year. With 118 yards against LSU, Arkansas tailback Fred Talley became the first Razorback to rush for 1,000 yards in seven seasons.

And so forth and so on. Add to this the fact that the NCAA will recognize bowl game statistics as part of the overall season for the first time ever, and what we have is an epidemic of broken records. Any inclination that anyone has to diminish these records should be suppressed by the memory of Frick, our summertime Scrooge.

Merry Bowling to all, and to all, a good night.

R.C. And A&M
By the middle of last week, reports of R.C. Slocum resigning at Texas A&M and Dennis Franchione leaving Alabama to replace him had been repeated so often that the only remaining discussion appeared to be whether Fran would buy Slocum's home in College Station or build his own.

	R.C. Slocum was 123-47-2 in 14 seasons with the Aggies.

On Thanksgiving night, the eve of the Aggies' 50-20 loss at Texas, the normally even-keeled Slocum sounded exasperated by all the talk. "The A&M job is not open and it's not going to be open," Slocum said. "I will tell you unequivocally that it will not happen." Franchione continued to deny the reports as well.

The first part of the reports were true. Texas A&M president Robert Gates fired Slocum on Monday. Slocum, who had home recruiting visits scheduled for every night this week, wasn't expecting his dismissal.

Gates still has an athletic director to hire too. Bill Byrne, who holds that position at Nebraska and is one of the most respected administrators in Division I-A, visited College Station last week and made a strong impression. Though no deal has been reached, he is the favorite to get an offer.

It will pain Slocum's detractors to hear it, but R.C. Rockne couldn't have prepared Texas A&M to beat Texas last week. The death of freshman tight end Brandon Fails on the Monday before the game ran the Aggies' preparation right off the road to Austin.

As for the second part of the reports, Franchione has the incentive to make himself look attractive to other schools, at least until the extension of his contract is signed. He also has a history of flirting with other employers.

The Aggies are 6-6 and hoping to cadge a bowl invitation out of someone. Discussions with the GMAC Bowl about going to Mobile to play Marshall fell through when the GMAC decided Sunday to stick to its deal with Conference USA and take Louisville.

Bowl game or not, next season can't start soon enough in College Station.

Second Guessing
"We talk about playing 60 minutes all the time and we actually broke it down even further to 3,600 seconds in a game. That is what we have to expect from our players now because two seconds was the difference in making a play at the end of the game and not making it, and we were fortunate to be able to make it. 3,600 seconds is what we are trying to play for from now on."
-- LSU coach Nick Saban, after the Tigers' 33-30 miracle victory over Kentucky.

"We won a game in 13 seconds and then lost this one in (34) seconds. It's just the way the ball bounces and we were the victim today."
-- Saban, after the Tigers' 21-20 loss at Arkansas last Friday.

Switch to Friday, when LSU led Arkansas 20-14 and pinned the Razorbacks on their 19-yard line with 34 seconds to play. Matt Jones, who had completed 2-of-13 passes in the previous 59-plus minutes, threw a 50-yard completion to Richard Smith on first down. After an incompletion, he found Decori Birmingham in the back of end zone for a 31-yard touchdown with :09 to spare.

Unlike Kentucky, Arkansas prevented LSU from scoring in the last two seconds, won the game 21-20 and a berth in the SEC Championship Game against Georgia. In his first quote above, Saban attempted to use the victory as a device to remind his players and everyone else the importance of playing hard and playing well on every play. That the Tigers failed to do only three weeks later may be a reminder of the attention span of 19-year-olds. It may be that the temptation of feeling victorious will overcome vigilance every time. Or it may just be that Arkansas made two great plays and LSU discovered that everything evens out in the end.

If the latter is the case, than the Razorbacks better be on guard. According to Jones, Arkansas coach Houston Nutt told his team a couple of weeks ago that an angel had been sent to Fayetteville and presumably, would guide the Hogs to the Georgia Dome. Nutt is one of the leading optimists of our time and is deeply religious to boot. But if LSU's fate is any indication, the angels have about as much allegiance as sportswriters. Arkansas will need more than angels to stop Georgia on Saturday night.

Quick Hits
One small measure of the defensive legacy that Bill Snyder has established at Kansas State: this is only the second season in the Big 12's seven-year existence that the Wildcats didn't have the league's Defensive Newcomer of the Year. Texas defensive tackle Rodrique Wright won it this season. . . .The GMAC Bowl will match Dave Ragone of Louisville and Byron Leftwich of Marshall, who will be among the first quarterbacks taken in the NFL draft next April. Both will play in Mobile again in January at the Senior Bowl. . . .Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley, faced with students outraged that the school allotted only 1,500 tickets to students for the SEC title game, found another 1,100 for them. Riots averted. . . .The Dawgs may end up being the third team in the two-team event that is the national championship game, and everyone in the conference except for South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State has a record good enough to go to a bowl game. But this is a down year for the SEC. It finished only 6-11 in games against the other five major conferences. In related news, Florida players are now available for interviews.

The Perfect Ten
One more Top 10 List. . .

1. Miami -- 33 and counting, but the 'Canes are still six games behind Mount Union.
2. Ohio State -- Maurice Clarett's left shoulder feels better every day.
3. USC -- We all suspected Notre Dame, but it took the Trojans to prove us right.
4. Iowa -- Did we say Pasadena? We meant Miami. Terribly sorry.
5. Georgia -- It took 11 games for the offense to play as well as defense.
6. Kansas State -- Too bad the OU-CU winner can't play the KSU-Texas winner.
7. Penn State -- Nittany Lions and Trojans finish as strong as anybody.
8. Washington State -- How's your ankle, Jason? How's your ankle, Jason? How's. . .
9. Oklahoma -- Bad news, Sooners: Oklahoma State is on the schedule next season.
10. Texas - Good to see Chris Simms close out his career in Austin so smashingly.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.