SCOTT JACOBS

It’s that time again!  Now that we’ve survived a vigorous two year campaign that was both very heated and very historic, it’s time to move on to the bigger issues at hand: namely, the BCS.  Yup, now that we’ve elected our President-elect in the U.S., our focus now need not shift to a sagging economy or an unbelievably expensive war, rather a system that, ten years and counting still makes no sense.  The BCS.  America’s punching bag.  If the BCS was a person it’d be mocked more on SNL then Sarah Palin ever could.  If the BCS was a party people would call for change, and change would happen.  If the BCS came to a democratic vote by college football fans, coaches, and players all across the country, it would cease to exist.  Instead, because all of those scenarios are either A) Unrealistic, B) Laughably absurd or C) Smart, college football has still not choosen to go the route of a playoff system.

You would think that if we can elect a black president in the U.S. we could do away with the BCS, but unfortunatley the two don’t go hand in hand.  We can change history, but we can’t overcome the worst, most hair-pulling system in sports.  We can go to war with other countries with the hope of coming up with peaceful solutions (or something supposedly like that), but we can’t find peace in college football, where the fans, coaches, and players are just dying to get a chance to ‘earn’ their national title.

All across the nation in Tuscaloosa, Lubbock, Gainseville, Los Angeles, State College, Stillwater, etc. the college football pundits are buzzing.  And they’re not doing that “bzzzzzzzz” thing that Georgia Tech fans do when a kickoff occurs.  No, they’re buzzing again at how we still have the same horrific system in place that is fun to curse out, but not nearly as enjoyable to play out.

But maybe there is change in the air.  On Monday Night, during ESPN’s attempt at looking like a wannabe sports/election channel, they interviewed Obama and asked what he would change in sports.  One thing, Chris Berman basically asked, is all you could change.  Obama’s response:

“I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other,” he said. “Get eight teams — the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.”

And thus, hope springs eternal.

Kind of.

Whether Obama has any pull whatsoever on ‘changing’ a system that is as stubborn as a stubborn can be is highly debatable.  Whether college football presidents, and conference presidents would even entertain the idea of letting Obama have a say is probably laughable.  But I think it’s safe to say that he will fight for (or at least, entertain the notion) of fixing this mess.

Pete Caroll, who’s team made the title game three years in a row, winning two consecutive titles, before losing in epic fashion to Texas, is fed up with the system.  His USC Trojans have shutout three of their last four opponents (Washington State, Arizona State, and Washington) and they actually dropped from fifth to seventh in this week’s BCS standings.  Caroll is baffled, as am I, how you can mutilate three teams the way USC has, and drop?  Like seriously?  Are we really going to go there?

Meanwhile, Penn State fans are sweating out the prospect of their team  running the table in the mediocre Big 10, and not making the title game.  A friend of mine brought up a valiant point that if Alabama runs the table all the way to SEC title game, and Florida does the same and then beats Alabama, that the Gators could feasibly jump Penn State.  Furthermore, if Texas Tech and Alabama don’t lose again, Penn State won’t have any chance to prove whether they’re great or not.

Texas Tech plays Oklahoma State this weekend and Oklahoma the next, so the prospects of them winning ‘em all are not likely.  Not yet at least.  And Alabama looks like they’re ready for a potential slipup.  I don’t put it past LSU to sneak up on the Tide and win this weekend.  USC is seventh, even though they lost like a million years ago to an Oregon State team that actually controls their own destiny in the disappointing, and borderline atrocious Pac 10.  Such is the beauty of college football, where a team could contend for a national title and actually lose their conference!

But yeah, let’s just keep the BCS going.

Or… or, we could put together a playoff field that looks something along the lines of this, and play out a title on the field:

Alabama, Texas Tech, Penn State, Florida, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, USC, Utah… or something like that.

It’s like that great line in Remember the Titans, when Denzel Washington  says, “let ‘em play ref.  Let ‘em play!”

Will the college football big shots ever let them play?  When you find out, you let me know.  In the meantime, I’ll continue to  buy those lotto tickets.

And the day I win the lottery, maybe college football will come to their senses.