Live from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport...
SI's Stewart Mandel is right when he says that this is BCS Armageddon. But, this is an opportunity to see if a 'plus 1' system would work.
We have four teams with legit shots at the BCS title; LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC. Va Tech could make a case for it too, but their body of work has not been as impressive as the other teams. So, with these four teams, stick USC-Ohio State in the Rose Bowl (they get their traditional matchup) and LSU-OK in the Sugar Bowl. The winners play a week later in New Orleans.
While it has been very fun watching the season blow up, it's terrible not knowing who is 1 and 2. Forget computers. I think LSU is 1, but I could go either way on OK and USC. As for Ohio State, they did win the Big 10 and have only one loss. You can make the case that, even though the leaderboard fell back to them, they have the best claim to the BCS title game.
The notion that University presidents will refuse a playoff on the grounds of academics is garbage. It's the bowl games that are standing in the way of all this. And with so many games now, for the powerhouse teams, non-BCS games mean jack squat anyway. Saurian Sagacity has always been on top of this with facts and pure hatred of the system, which is nice. But here's my question; we've advanced in everything, but not in college football? We've been deciding national champions the same way since Rutgers-Princeton; random people's opinions. (And I use random because you and I both know there are some dumb pollsters out there.)
The matchup I want to see is LSU-OSU because I want to see the Bucks get destroyed for a second season by the SEC. But it would also be nice if the four schools nutted up and agreed to a four team playoff. If that doesn't happen (and we know it won't), at least we can begin a serious discussion outside of what bloggers think. It shouldn't be too ridiculous to hope for at least a 'plus 1' in three-four years. Then play that for a few seasons before gradually going to six teams, and then eight.
Also, I want to give a shoutout to Chase Daniel for crapping the bed Saturday night. The quote of the day goes to my Dad, who said, "This Daniel is no Tebow." No kidding, pops. Let's see if the Heisman voters realize this.