Just the thought brings to mind many horrors. The ebola virus. The eruption of Mt. St. Helen’s. Postal worker slayings.

It’s very scary how easily a three-peat could be achieved by the Cornhuskers of Nebraska. Even a loss to Arizona State and a narrow victory over Colorado are not large enough obstacles to keep Nebraska out of the hunt.

Don’t count the Big Red out.

They are currently No. 3 in the polls. Not bad. They have a date in the Sugar Bowl with Florida State, the current No. 1 team in the land. Great opportunity.

Of course, they have to get past Texas in the Big 12 Conference Championship in St. Louis. According to James Brown (the quarterback, not the Fox analyst nor the “hardest working man in show biz”), Nebraska is going to lose by three touchdowns.

Ignore this man. Nebraska by a bunch. The Huskers are in the Sugar Bowl.

Florida State earned its spot in the Sugar with a 24-21 win over then-No. 1 Florida. They exposed the pass-blocking weakness that hinders Florida’s offense, much like Nebraska did in last year’s Fiesta Bowl.

It will be a good game. Both teams have great defenses. Nebraska has an edge in the running game, despite Warrick Dunn being a Seminole, while FSU has a much better passing game.

If Nebraska can control the game with its running game, they could easily walk away with a victory in a game with rather low scoring.

No. 1 is dethroned, in theory. So what about No. 2?

Arizona State, the team that beat Nebraska, is heading to the Rose Bowl to play No. 5 Ohio State University. The team that could’ve kept Nebraska out of the championship picture.

How so?

If they could just once figure out how to beat Michigan, all would be well. But once again, the Wolverines walked all over the Buckeyes. Maybe OSU needs a more intimidating nickname than the Buckeyes.

Arizona State is undefeated. Ohio State was undefeated until the Michigan loss and at that time sat at No. 2 in the polls.

If both teams could have goneinto that game undefeated, one would come out of the game undefeated. Logic at work.

So regardless of the Sugar Bowl outcome, one of these teams would’ve been able to hold Nebraska out of the top spot. But John Cooper and the Buckeyes blew it.

So if Nebraska defeats Florida State and Ohio State defeats Arizona State, then Nebraska could slip into the throne as college football’s champions.

It would take two upsets for this to happen, however. Nebraska has looked rather sloppy lately and can’t afford to make these same mistakes against Florida State. They will make them pay for turnovers.

And Jake “The Snake” Plummer should run and pass his way past Ohio State for a Rose Bowl victory and, at worst, a No. 2 final ranking.

But like I said, you can’t count the Big Red out. They are still lurking.

Of course, if we had a playoff system….

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Christopher Clair is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Waukon. He is the sports editor at the Daily.