by Israel Gutierrez, The Miami Herald , The Miami Herald

A champion is always crowned, but not always recognized, and this year, capped by Thursday night's BCS title game, might have featured the most unsatisfying finish to a season in recent memory.

Not because the Gators and Sooners didn't produce the offensive fireworks or exhaust the scorekeeper as everyone expected them to.

But because the BCS national championship is over and no one can say with absolute confidence who the national champion really is.

Plus one, anyone?

There might not have been a better argument for some alteration to the system than the finish of this bowl season. Not a complete overhaul like an eight-team-or-more playoff that robs the regular season of excitement. That would affect the uniqueness of college football far more than those who are calling for it can even consider.

EMPTY FEELING

One more game, though, would offer something, anything, to those fans craving absolute certainty at season's end. It won't quench the thirst entirely. But it has to be better than this emptiness sitting with us after what happened in Dolphin Stadium.

The hope was that one of these two powerhouses would end the discussion with a decisive victory. Either the Gators would prove that speed, a reliable defense and a mythical hero at quarterback was the formula for dominance, or the Sooners would score 60 points again and officially legitimize the Big 12 Conference.

We got none of those things Thursday. Sure, it was an intense, close contest that, had it actually been an indisputable championship game, would've constituted a dream finale.

But the fact that it wasn't one-sided has left the podium standing and microphone on for three other teams to make their cases.

What about Thursday's game told the Texas Longhorns that they shouldn't be celebrated as the No. 1 team in America on Friday morning?

The Longhorns not only beat the Sooners just as decisively as the Gators did in what was effectively a home game for UF, but their only loss came on a last-second play that was considered the biggest play of the entire season for its timing and drama.

Texas coach Mack Brown has defiantly said he would vote his team No. 1, despite the agreement that says coaches are to vote for the winner of the BCS title game as champions.

And he should. Why vote against your conscience and deny your athletes the satisfaction of knowing that at least someone believes they're winners?

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham should cast his vote for No. 1 for his team as well, no matter how rogue an act it is, or what kind of precedent it would set.

No other team can claim what Whittingham's Utes can. They didn't lose a game. They played three ranked teams in the process. They defied skeptics not with hook-and-laterals or Statue of Liberty plays the way Boise State did a few years ago to beat Oklahoma. They did it just by being better.

And anyone who doubts the strength of that team's schedule should check Penn State's schedule. Had the Nittany Lions done what Utah did this regular season, they would have certainly been playing in Dolphin Stadium, and that was without a TCU or a BYU or an Alabama win on their resume.

And let's not forget about Southern Cal, whose coach Pete Carroll said for all the nation to hear that no one is better than his Trojans at the moment. What, exactly, separates these Gators from any of those three teams?

We would've loved to learn just that on Thursday.

What we saw was a quarterback in Tim Tebow proving that perhaps he was shortchanged in the run for his second Heisman. When the game was up for grabs, it was Tebow who plowed through the Oklahoma defense for a defining touchdown drive.

UNSATISFYING FINISH

But it's hard to imagine Tebow pulling off that feat against Ray Maualuga and the top-ranked USC defense.

Of course, these Gators won't question the system. Not when they have the ultimate argument ender, that crystal football.

"The Gators are No. 1," Urban Meyer said, deflecting a question about the need for a playoff system.

For the Gators, there's no lack of satisfaction. That's for the rest of college football to suffer through.

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