Up until about 9 p.m. Saturday, I was starting to believe in Santa Claus again.

All I needed was two wins – in two winnable games – and everything would be set up for the best Christmas present I would have received in many years – a Missouri-West Virginia BCS Championship game that would have pitted two of the nation’s top offenses against each other.

West Virginia just needed to beat an extremely beatable Pittsburgh team at home – the same team the Mountaineers had dominated by an average of 25 points the past two seasons.

Missouri had a much more formidable task – squaring off against the only team to beat it this season, Oklahoma. But if Missouri could eliminate the mistakes – the Tigers had four turnovers during the loss in Norman, Okla. – they looked to be in good position to hold onto the No. 1 BCS ranking.

But with one injury to West Virginia quarterback Pat White, and only one Missouri touchdown later, the visions of sugar plums and 1,000 yards of total offense dancing in my head were dashed.

Instead of watching two teams that put up a combined 78.9 points and 943.19 yards of offense per game try and outsprint each other to a BCS title, I’m going to be spending my holiday season watching Ohio State and LSU butt heads for 60 minutes.

Yawn.

Just writing that made me fall asleep. I can’t even imagine what will actually happen watching the game. I might not wake up in time for spring semester.

When I watch football, I want offense. I want the New England Patriots running up the score, daring someone to stop them. I want Hawaii and Texas Tech throwing the ball 50 or 60 times a game, hanging the running game up in the closet next to the drop kick and leather helmets.

Anyone who says they wouldn’t have enjoyed watching West Virginia’s spread option attack (292.9 rush yards per game) try and outscore Missouri’s spread passing game (327.8 passing yards per game) is either a liar, over 50 years old or a “football purist” – one of those holier-than-thou fools who want everything to be the way it was back in the day.

This isn’t the old days anymore. Hard-nose defense and power running are out; the spread offense and big-play defenses are in.

Ohio State is No. 1 in scoring defense (10.7 points per game) and LSU is 20th (19.6 points per game). Who’s up for a 10-7 national title game? Not me!

I probably watched five LSU games this year – since CBS can’t manage to find another SEC campus to broadcast from – and they probably should have lost at least one more game, if not two. Luck finally caught up to them (twice), but they must have had another rabbit’s foot stashed away.

Then there is Ohio State, winners of the Big Two and Little Nine – the Big Ten. The Buckeyes and Michigan pretty much have a mortal lock on this conference, except that, this year, OSU couldn’t even make it to the matchup with Michigan undefeated. Illinois knocked them off the week before the big game, then Ohio State survived a 14-3 slopfest at the Big House.

Do either of those resumes sound inviting – or deserving, for that matter – of a national championship showdown?

The only way this game could get any worse was if they got John Madden and Joe Buck in the broadcast booth, subjecting watchers to three hours of kindergarden-level analysis and self-righteous pontificating, respectively.

I’ll tune in and watch, if only because I’m a sports junkie who can’t make it more than a few days without a fix. But no matter how the game turns out, I won’t be able to really enjoy it. That night, after the game is over and I’m all tuckered out, I’ll drift off to sleep and dream of a perfect world – a world where 100 points is again a possibility.

But since both Missouri and West Virginia return their Heisman candidate quarterbacks – Chase Daniel and Pat White, respectively – maybe that world will become a reality.

I’ll just have to wait until next year.

– Nick Paulson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Minnetonka, Minn.