The final race for Reggie Bush

After the world watches the ball drop in New York City's Times Square on Saturday night, attention shifts to San Francisco to see if Houston will drop the ball on Sunday afternoon.

It's the Reggie Bush Bowl and five teams have a chance to win. The Texans are in the lead by being the most awful bunch of 53 in the NFL through the first 16 weeks.

But the 3-12 Jets have a fighting chance at turning 2005 into something we can remember . . . for positive reasons.

Jets fans will be at Giants Stadium or in front of their television sets for what amounts to the greatest philosophical debate of the 21st century.
Do we root for victory to end the 2005 season and start the 2006 calendar with a modicum of happiness?

Or, do we begin the B-I-L-L-S BILLS! BILLS! BILLS! chant and egg on a 13th loss for our Jets in the hopes of getting the No. 1 draft pick?

This is a tenuous predicament.

The Jets are still alive in the race for USC running back Reggie Bush, the most electrifying college football player in the last 30 years.

Ordinarily, advocating team failure is grounds for immediate dismissal from fandom. But, Bush is far from ordinary.

The inverted standings look like this:

Team Rec SOS
Texans 2-13 .533
Saints 3-12 .517
Jets 3-12 .533
Packers 3-12 .542
49ers 3-12 .546

On the first calendar day of 2006, the NFL will send fans in five cities into a tizzy.
If all five teams finish at 3-13, a distinct possibility, then any one of them can earn the No. 1 pick. It's all based on strength of schedule.

In order to figure out a team's SOS, add up the records of all 16 teams they played. (Yes, count divisional opponents' records twice.)

The lower the strength of schedule, the higher the draft pick.
Of course, the Texans could just as easily lose this weekend to the 49ers, rendering all this pointless. The 2-13 Texans are 0-7 on the road. This is not good.

(Secretly, Jets fans are hoping the Texans still believe in their running back, Domanick Davis, and not their quarterback, David Carr. Or, maybe they believe in both and will draft an offensive lineman -- most likely Virginia's D'Brickashaw Ferguson from Freeport. Trading the pick is unthinkable, or at least, that's what Jets fans want to believe, just in case the Jets don't get the No. 1 spot.)

The mathematical equations are far too macrocosmic right now to determine who will lock up the No. 1 pick if all five teams finish at 3-13. Call NASA. Call Elias Sports Bureau. Call John Nash from "A Beautiful Mind."

They will all say the same thing: "Call me on Sunday night."

However, there are still a few things Jets fans can root for in Week 17:
* Oakland to lose. The Raiders are one of three teams the Jets played but the other four didn't. (The other two are San Diego and Denver, which play each other on Saturday.)
* The G-Men! In-town rivals be damned. If the Giants can win at Oakland, the Jets' SOS decreases while the Saints' and 49ers' increases. Ti-ki! Ti-ki! Ti-ki!
* Chicago to beat Minnesota. This would increase the 49ers' SOS. The Packers would add two wins and two losses, and the Saints would add one and one, so it's virtual washout.
* One more bit of magic from Brett Favre. If the Packers can get that fourth win by beating visiting Seattle, they would be out of the running. The Texans and 49ers would appreciate the dip in SOS, but the Saints wouldn't enjoy their uptick.

It's going to be a maddening conclusion to a painful season in green.