After 15 years of arguments, controversies, and injustices, the Lords of college football are finally talking about getting it right.

Now, of course, nothing is done just yet, but the wheels are in motion for a solution that has been so mind-bogglingly simple, and yet seemingly beyond the grasp of supposedly intelligent men.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the commissioners of the Bowl Championship Series met at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dallas to finally discuss a way to quell the masses calling for heads to roll with the way they have embarrassingly mismanaged how college football's national champion is crowned.

I have always believed that those who wear neckties are not able to think clearly because the blood must not be able to get up to their brains. After all, these are administrators with Ph.D.'s and they couldn't figure out what the rest of us had been able to see from Day 1. All the while, those same commissioners had flat-out lied to the public, been condescending to anyone who dared question them, and then laughed all the way to the bank.

This week, after mounting pressure from, well, everyone, the commissioners had three stated goals:

1. Improve the game of college football
2. Enhance the experience for the student-athlete
3. Make it acceptable to the public

Let's begin from the back and move our way to the front. How can the BCS become acceptable to the public?

For one, close the loopholes that have always existed within the system. This past year, Alabama had no business playing LSU in the National Championship Game if you believe what has been crammed down our throats for the last 15 years; that college football's regular season means everything. It is irrespective of the fact that Alabama won the game; they had no business being there in the first place.

After all, Alabama already lost to LSU on their home field, while throwing a goal-line interception and missing four field goals along the way. That the Crimson Tide didn't even win their own division (much less conference) should have precluded them from being the No. 2 team in the country.

Remember, in the era we are in of conference championship games, LSU had to expose themselves one more time for the outright conference championship, while Alabama did not. As LSU was clobbering Georgia, the Crimson Tide were home sitting on their couches eating Doritos.

Likewise, Michigan State earned the right to be the second team from the Big Ten to represent the conference in the BCS this season, should there have been two that would be selected. In the inaugural Big Ten championship, Wisconsin narrowly escaped against the Spartans 42-39 on Dec. 3.

Obviously, with the win, the Badgers won the right to go to the Rose Bowl. But because Michigan State exposed themselves with the extra game and lost, they were bypassed by Michigan when an at-large berth to the Sugar Bowl was available.

The Wolverines, like the Crimson Tide, got to lay low and stay home while the champions of their division had the added burden on one extra game. Michigan State was the superior team and they got to go to the Outback Bowl for their efforts, despite even their two-touchdown win over Michigan in their head-to-head meeting.

But this year was hardly the first time undeserving teams were given berths in what are supposed to be the most prestigious games of the year. But because the system rewards only numbers and not eyeballs and common sense, we've been scratching our heads since the day the first BCS pairings were announced.

After all, how else does one explain away No. 3 Kansas State being relegated to the Alamo Bowl in 1998 or No. 4 Nebraska playing for the national championship in 2001?

There have been other anomalies as well; a split national championship in 2003, when LSU won the BCS title and USC won the AP championship. Then there was undefeated Auburn not even having a shot at the title in 2004. In 2006, 0.0101 computer points gave Florida a chance at the championship and left Michigan out.

Page 1 of 2 (view all on one page)

Next >>