Gene Chizik distilled it all into a simple proclamation: God was with him. How nice of God, really, to look down upon the Auburn coach and his many noble athletes and bestow upon them the BCS championship. And how sad for Chip Kelly and Oregon, forced to walk off the field at the stadium sponsored by the University of Phoenix (for profit, no religious affiliation) knowing they were thwarted not only by their own reckless decisions but by God, as well.

Chip Kelly's Oregon program is also under a watchful eye from above by a larger-than-life personality. AP Photo/Matt York

Perhaps we have a new definition of a rough night. Losing a heartbreaker on a field goal on the last play of the game is bad enough. (Especially when the drive's signature play is a classic hair-splitting football rule interpretation on a tackle that apparently wasn't.) But imagine how much worse it was to learn afterward that you were working against not only the formidable Auburn Tigers but also the Almighty. It could be too much to handle.

Although maybe it makes it easier for Chip and the Ducks to throw up their hands and say there was nothing they could do about it. It was literally out of their hands. If nothing else, it probably would have made the Ducks think twice about showing up if someone had had the courtesy to tell them the enormity of the opposition. But still, the thought that God was putting his considerable psychic weight behind a team that includes a player with the questionable ethics of Nick Fairley casts doubt on the whole God enterprise. Besides, wouldn't He, if He cared, have gone the extra mile and allowed the Tigers to cover?

Chizik's opening postgame statement -- in response to a question by Tom Rinaldi that still hasn't been answered -- raises so many questions, none more pressing than this: If the game contained an element of predestination, and if God was the ultimate factor in the outcome, will Chizik cash the $600,000 bonus check his contract deems he will receive for winning the title? Or will he donate it to a deserving Christian charity in Auburn or the Sisters of the Holy Faith? After all, how much did he have to do with it?