Admit it. You're thinking about it. The ultimate game for regional fans is so tantalizingly close you can almost smell the tailgate party.

Georgia vs. Clemson.

BCS National Championship Game.

Jan. 8, 2009.

Dolphin Stadium, Miami.

Tell me you haven't already reserved a hotel room in South Florida and a table at Joe's Stone Crab.

Not since Herschel Walker wore red and black and Danny Ford called X's and O's for the Tigers has such an inspiring possibility existed. But back when Georgia won its last national title in 1980 and Clemson followed suit in 1981, any potential dream matchup would have been hampered by the vagaries of the old bowl system.

Now, it's out there for the taking. Georgia is the preseason No. 1 team, given the post position as the title game representative of the vaunted Southeastern Conference. Clemson sits ninth in the same preseason poll, but the Tigers are the overwhelming choice to sweep through the underwhelming Atlantic Coast Conference.

It really could happen. It would be absolutely fantastic if it did.

But it won't.

Despite both teams being national championship worthy and possessing more than enough talent to beat anybody, the dream border matchup will not take place. Both Georgia and Clemson might qualify for BCS bowl games, but neither will play for the national title.

This lack of faith is based on two things.

- Georgia plays flat-out the toughest schedule of any team in the country.

- Clemson is still coached by Tommy Bowden.

Each of these things makes it very hard to predict that the Bulldogs and Tigers will make it through the season unscathed. It's not a prerequisite (at least not for Georgia), but running the table is the best way to take at least some of the subjectivity out of college football's incompetent postseason process.

Neither Georgia nor Clemson will run the table.

This opinion isn't cast arbitrarily or maliciously. It would be so cool if it could happen. It just seems like too much to ask.

First, let's look at Georgia. The Bulldogs were far and away the best team in the nation at the end of last season. Nobody wanted to play them in a postseason game (especially LSU). Mark Richt had loosened the reins and instilled a spirit in his team that no opponent could bridle. It is the reason they were installed as the 2008 favorites.

But for all his team's talent, Richt has one very big problem this season. His untested offensive line inspires serious doubt. You can't just line up five bricks and hope the sum turns into the Great Wall in front of Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford. Whether this unproven bunch can handle the mounting waves of invaders from Arizona State to Alabama to Tennessee to LSU to Florida to Auburn in an eight-week span is a big question mark.

As for Clemson, for all of Bowden's obvious talents as a recruiter, he still leaves much to be desired as a game coach. If Steve Spurrier had the Tigers' roster against an ACC schedule, it would be a done deal. With Bowden, it never is.

Let's forget that Bowden once thought Will Proctor was a better quarterback than Cullen Harper. The coach has too many scratch-your-head losses to be considered flukes. Last year, he couldn't win the biggest games, even at home, with a brutal collapse against Boston College dooming an ACC title shot.

As for which teams pose the biggest obstacles (aside from the obvious ranked choices), it could be the closest neighbors that cause trouble.

Neither Georgia Tech nor South Carolina is generating the kind of championship buzz as their rivals, but each of them stands in the way at key junctures on both schedules. Those final intrastate, nonconference rivalry hurdles are never fun when so much is on the line. But it's the earlier conference matchups that might prove pivotal.

Last year, Spurrier and the Gamecocks proved to be the difference that kept Georgia out of the BCS title game. Had the Bulldogs taken care of business in Sanford Stadium, they would have won the SEC East and removed the primary argument that kept them from getting the final BCS consideration. That game looms large early, as always, and this time in Columbia.

Georgia Tech, however, creates the greatest potential headaches this season. New coach Paul Johnson brings his triple option offense to the Flats, and it creates a wild card that neither Richt nor Bowden wants dealt.

Especially Bowden. He's always had enough trouble with the Yellow Jackets in general, but when an unfamiliar wrinkle gets thrown at him, he's quick to flinch. When Wake Forest was more option-oriented in the first few years under coach Jim Grobe, the Tigers had trouble handling the Demon Deacons. Johnson's offense is much more problematic, and it will provide the kind of challenge that Bowden and Clemson's fans dread, even in Death Valley.

So the prediction here is that there will be stumbles somewhere -- missteps that might not prevent conference title trips and BCS bowl invitations but will spoil the biggest potential border showdown in history.

However, should they actually both make it to Miami for the title game, bet Georgia. While the talent may be compatible, Richt and the SEC are in another league altogether compared to Bowden and the ACC.