Controversy clearly doesn’t guarantee ratings.
   Despite the huge stink over which two of three contending teams should have received spots in Sunday’s Sugar Bowl, the college football national championship game and climax to the four-game Bowl Championship Series, ABC clocked what could turn out to be record low ratings for the event, as predicted by Media Life.
   From 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., the game averaged a 13.5 household rating, according to Nielsen overnights. According to metered market ratings, the entire game averaged a 14.4 rating.
  Though those numbers will adjust somewhat because the event was live and because it lasted until 12:15 a.m., it may not be enough to lift it ahead of the worst-rated game in BCS title history, 2002’s 14.3 household rating.
  Final numbers will be out later today or by tomorrow at the latest.
   Last year’s controversy-free BCS title game between Ohio State and Miami averaged a 17.2, second in the six-year BCS history behind the 2001 Oklahoma-Florida State game, which averaged a 17.8.
  Louisiana State beat Oklahoma 21-14 to win yesterday’s Sugar, giving the Tigers a split with Rose Bowl champion USC for No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll and Associated Press writers’ poll.
   In fact, USC’s Thursday Rose Bowl victory over Michigan averaged a 14.5 overnight, which could mean that for the first time in BCS history, a lesser bowl will outdraw the main event.
  Though Oklahoma could have tied yesterday’s game with less than 3 minutes to play, it seems viewers lost interest before that – at 10 p.m., the Sugar Bowl averaged just a 13.1, including a 12.6 household rating in the first hour.
   The game averaged just under 22 million viewers from 8 to 11, giving the night easily to ABC. The game averaged an 8.0 adults 18-49 rating and gave ABC a winning 6.9/16 for the evening.
   CBS, boosted by overrun from an NFL AFC wild card playoff game into the 7 p.m. hour, averaged a second-place 4.4/11 among 18-49s. NBC was third at 3.9/9, Fox fourth at 3.4/8 and the WB fifth at 1.5/4.
  Fox’s “The Simpsons” was the highest-rated non-football program of the night, averaging a 5.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m. A CBS rerun of “CSI: Miami” at 10 p.m. averaged an impressive 4.6 opposite the football.
   Among households ABC finished first for the night with a 12.0/18 average. CBS was second at 9.9/15. NBC was third with a 7.2/11, Fox fourth at 4.7/7 and the WB fifth at 2.6/4.