With the impending probability that the Ohio State-Michigan game will be a de facto national championship and the increasing likelihood a Big East team will run the table without facing a worthy opponent, the outcry for a college football playoff is louder than ever.
I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon.
Keep in mind that there will always be a team that gets the short end of the stick. One year, there will be three one-loss teams (2003-04). In another, there will be five undefeated teams (2004-05). And in another, there will be a sole undefeated team and a slew of one-loss contenders.
There's no fair way to set a playoff field that will work from year to year. If the pool is set at eight or 16 teams, there'll be too many squads that don't deserve a shot at the title because of shaky regular seasons. If the field is set at four, a team that deserves a shot will be on the outside looking in. And if only one team finishes undefeated, should it really have to work its way through a playoff tree against less worthy competitors?
My solution? Do nothing.
For all the Bowl Championship Series' faults, you have to admit that it's an improvement. Take the BCS games from last year as an example (stay with me, it could get confusing). Without the BCS, the four major bowl matchups would have looked like this, according to traditional bowl alliances.
Rose Bowl: No. 1 Southern Cal vs. Penn State
Fiesta Bowl: No. 2 Texas vs. at-large (Notre Dame, West Virginia or Ohio State)
Orange Bowl: Florida State vs. at-large
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. at-large
See the problem here? Without the BCS, one of the greatest college football games of all time — No. 1 USC vs. No. 2 Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl — never even happens. Neither does the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, which was nearly as good.
So let the BCS live a little longer. It's working better than any previous system, the wrinkles are getting ironed out, and most importantly, it has led to some incredible championship games. On to the Top 10.
No. 1 — Ohio State (No. 1 AP, No. 1 BCS)
You don't realize how mellow Troy Smith is until you watch him in person and talk to him face-to-face. You could have replaced MSU's defense with 11 Lawrence Taylor clones, and he wouldn't have blinked.
No. 2 — Michigan (No. 2 AP, No. 3 BCS)
The scary thing is it looks like Lloyd Carr is holding back and saving the fireworks for the Ohio State game.
By the way, enough crying out of Ann Arbor about the Wolverines being No. 3 in the first BCS rankings. Relax, Weasels. Beat Ohio State, and the ranking will take care of itself.
(Please, schedule gods, do not make Penn State and MSU play at the same time as the Ohio State-U-M game on Nov. 18. I'm begging.)
No. 3 — Texas (No. 5 AP, No. 9 BCS)
Colt McCoy has thrown 18 touchdown passes this season while being picked off only three times. He has the fifth best passer efficiency rating in the entire nation.
No. 4 — West Virginia (No. 4 AP, No. 5 BCS)
The Mountaineers are averaging nearly 330 yards per game on the ground.
Now if only the defense could learn some discipline …
No. 5 and No. 6 — Floriburnsiannessee
You try to figure out the SEC. I give up. Between LSU's inability to win on the road, Chris Leak's fourth-quarter implosion against Auburn and Arkansas' surprise run, I don't even know where to begin. Tennessee might even be the best of the bunch, yet the Volunteers lost to Florida — at home.
No. 7— Cal (No. 11 AP, No. 10 BCS)
Just four more weeks before the Golden Bears knock the Trojans off the top of the Pac-10 hill. Mark my words.
(Or don't. I have been wrong before.)
No. 8 — Southern Cal (No. 3 AP, No. 2 BCS)
Let's have a moment of silence for the death of Matt Leinart's NFL career, which was clearly over the moment he was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. It probably took Leinart all of five seconds to get over the Cardinals' Monday Night Meltdown and remember that he holds the monopoly on hot coeds on the Pacific coast.
No. 9 — Clemson (No. 12 AP, No. 12 BCS)
For all my whining about the Big East, the ACC is even weaker. You can take that as a back-handed compliment, West Virginia fans. In fact, I'd like to see that in a Big East advertisement — maybe they can premiere it during the Louisville-West Virginia game on Nov. 2.
"The Big Least! At least we're better than the ACC!"
No. 10 — Notre Dame (No. 10 AP, No. 8 BCS)
Quietly lurking in the bushes …
No. 72 — MSU
OK, sure, the injuries have played a major role in the team's current four-game losing streak. But is it too much to ask for the Spartans to at least be competitive?
Ethan Conley can be reached at conleyet@msu.edu.
