It'll Never Happen

For people that follow college football and the NCAA, we've had about a week to digest Florida defeating Oklahoma for the BCS National championship. Like the other 100% of the country (sans Miles Brand and not-financially-strapped university presidents) I am in favor of a playoff and much like 90% of us, I would/can/have designed a playoff that would work for Division-I football.

Through all of this pondering about how to save the day in college football, I've concluded that I don't want to save the day anymore. It's not really fun following college football, at least through the months of September through January. I know there are millions of Boise State, TCU, and Utah fans that feel their teams are legitimate national champion contenders and should be in the discussion with the Oklahomas and the Texases and the USCs of the world - and I fully agree with them.

But even as these mid-major teams struggle for supremacy, I watch SportsCenter today and read columns about college football for next season, and they've ALREADY ranked the top five-10-15 teams in the country. How is this possible? And guess who's in the discussion for the national title next season: Florida (loss to Mississippi,) USC (loss to Oregon State,) Texas (loss to Texas Tech, who we found only plays offense,) and Oklahoma (2 losses.) Why wouldn't Utah be ranked #2 in the land going into next season? Now, going into next fall, the mid-majors have been penalized because they haven't won any meaningful games in June? This is like your parents forcing you to rake all of the leaves in the neighborhood with a fork...and they you actually rake those leaves with that fork...and then they ground you for getting the silverware so dirty.

This is why I've decided to stop worrying about college football and the polls and nonsense of mid-December through January. It's a battle I can't win as long as the current system is in place. I'll continue to cheer for Pitt, but no longer will I hope the BCS has the worst possible scenario happen to them. We have discovered that no matter how unfair the current system is, it's not going to change and actually thrives on being unfair. And as frustrated as Utah must be this season, they have to take pride in knowing they are better than the current system. They have won the support of many other fans who team will never have a chance to win a national title or even be ranking in the top 25. As long as reputation, speculation, and unknowledgeable voters control this part of athletics, we will be destined for the doghouse for doing exactly what we've been told.

--- If you have an analogy you'd like to use for college football, let us know about it...