I know it is becoming an annual rite of winter to bash the selections the lords of the Bowl Championship Series have made in regards to the grand finale of the college football season. 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.

Those are just a few examples of how the system that was implemented thirteen years ago has made college football fans scream to the powers that be that there needs to be a better way.

Indeed, this season there may be a tipping point, for the BCS has really screwed up what is supposed to be a celebration of sport. Instead, allegations of corruption, cronyism, bias, and greed have dominated headlines to the point where the only socially acceptable reaction to the very letters "BCS" is a sneer followed by an expletive or two.

This season, the BCS implausibly rewarded two schools that did not even win their own division, much less conference. In a rematch of an ugly defensive slugfest laughingly billed as the "Game of the Century" back on Nov. 5, LSU will play its rival in the SEC West, Alabama, for the national championship.

Never mind that the Crimson Tide fell 9-6 at home to the Tigers in that first meeting. Never mind that Alabama threw a goal-line interception and missed four field goals. Never mind that they got to sit at home and rest on their ranking while other teams, specifically LSU and Oklahoma State, had the added burden of playing in their conference's championship games.

Never mind that the only game that Oklahoma State lost was in double overtime, on the road, and the day after the university's athletics department was rocked by a tragic plane crash that killed the top two women's basketball coaches and two others close to the team. For those that argue that since it was "just" the women's basketball team and not the football program that was affected clearly have no clue how closely knit university athletic programs are to each other. They have the same athletic training facilities; often times they have the same dorms. Their social worlds are intertwined every single moment. The tragedy had a profound effect, without question.

But no, the SEC slappys are now all atwitter that the sacred cow of college football (that the rest of the world must bow down to) of course has the two best teams, so why shouldn't they play for the championship trophy? I mean, after all, it's the SEC! It's how God himself meant it to be!

Can you tell me for certain that Alabama is better than Oklahoma State? No, you can't, just as I cannot tell you that the opposite is true.

However, I can tell you for certain that Michigan State was a better football team than Michigan was in 2011. How do I know? Because the Spartans beat the Wolverines head-to-head by two touchdowns on Oct. 15, that's how. Because Michigan State won the Legends Division outright, that's how.

However, because the Spartans – again, the champions of their division – had to play one additional game Saturday night in Indianapolis in where they exposed themselves in a way the Wolverines did not have to do, they got shut out of the prestigious game they earned. Because Wisconsin beat Michigan State in the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game by a mere three points, the Spartans are relegated to Outback Bowl while the Wolverines jumped into the BCS, playing Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

Did I mention that Michigan State won their division? Did I mention they also beat Michigan by two touchdowns head-to-head?

Criminal. Downright criminal.

Boise State coach Chris Peterson ripped the BCS to shreds on Monday, telling reporters, "I think everybody is just very tired of the BCS, that's the bottom line. Everybody's frustrated, nobody really knows what to do anymore. It doesn't make sense. I don't think any one is happy, anywhere. They say it's the one and two best teams, there's even controversy on that. The whole thing needs to be changed there's no question about it."

How did we get to this point in the first place? How is it, after more than a decade of controversies and complaints, that there still isn't a better way?

Trying to understand where the BCS commissioners are coming from isn't really that hard. Their own actions and words have revealed them to be hypocrites and liars.

When asked in 2004 about the possibility of adding a plus-one format, in essence extending the season for two teams, one extra game beyond the bowls for a much less controversial championship, then-president of BCS oversight committee, Dr. David Frohnmayer must have watched his nose grow. Frohnmayer said in a radio interview that "we do not have the desire to expose the student-athletes to any further injury, nor do we desire to have any of them miss any further class."

The next year, a twelfth regular season game was added to everyone's schedule, exposing all of their student athletes to further injury. Two years later, a separate national championship game was added with predetermined teams, thus extending the season one extra week.

Never mind that everything Frohnmayer said was a flat-out lie. The season was extended on both ends of the schedule.

So why can't we have a one-game playoff after the bowls again? Plain and simple: money and control.

The BCS doesn't care that Michigan State is more deserving than Michigan for a spot in the big money game. Wolverines fans will travel en masse to New Orleans; Spartans fans perhaps not as much. The Big Ten doesn't care because they split the pot up equally among all of their member institutions. Just as long as two teams are in to get the big pay day, commissioner Jim Delany couldn't care less if it were Purdue and Indiana going to the BCS, just as long as the checks still clear.

The bowls themselves are set up as tax-free cash generators to ostensibly give money to charity. That is the set-up. The execution doesn't always work that way.

John Junker was the president and CEO of the Fiesta Bowl until this spring, when he was fired for using bowl funds to make illegal contributions to local politicians, among other things. When the dust settled, lavish parties, glad handing and outright cash payments were discovered to have been funded by a so-called charitable organization.

To think that this kind of behavior is isolated to one bowl game is naïve. Junker just got caught.

The methodology of team selection is a farce, as well.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal revealed the results of a multiyear study of voting habits of coaches, one of the elements used.

"Coaches distort their rankings to reflect their own team's reputation and financial interests," the study said. "On average, coaches rank their teams from their own athletic conference nearly a full position more favorably and boost their own team's more than two full positions. Coaches also rank the teams they defeated more favorably; thereby making their own team look better."

No wonder Alabama coach Nick Saban didn't have Oklahoma State in his top three in his final ballot. Air Force coach Troy Calhoun ranked the Cowboys No. 5.

For what its worth, Baylor coach Art Briles ranked Michigan at No. 11. He was also one of only two voters that had Wisconsin worse than tenth; Briles ranked the Badgers No. 16.

Criminal. Downright criminal.

The Harris Poll is a bad joke as well, consisting of former team and league officials that don't even keep close tabs on the game. 80-year old George Wine, the former sports information director at Iowa voted Oklahoma State No. 6 in his final ballot. When asked about his vote that counted towards the Cowboys being shut out of the national championship, Wine admitted that he "doesn't do as much research" as other voters.

What? Wine's position is indefensible, but he isn't the only Harris voter that has some explaining to do.

Harris Poll voter and former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Derrick Mays' ballot did not rank Georgia at all, but put Auburn at No. 18. Never mind that (10-3) Georgia won the SEC East and throttled (7-5) Auburn head-to-head 45-7.

Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Don Strock placed Nebraska No. 17 and Michigan No. 25, despite the Wolverines having a better record and a four-touchdown win over the Cornhuskers head-to-head.

Peterson has a solution that will never be implemented because of it's reasoned approach and general common sense.

"I think the best model is something like the basketball guys do," he said. "Where you get a committee who is ranking these teams all throughout the year, and every week you see where they are. Maybe it's halfway through the season you start ranking them and things just fall out. Like we said, ranking them early makes no sense. Then you pare the bowls down, there's too many bowls, and then you play a "plus-one." You get the top four teams, and it's still subjective, but at least it's closer. Right now nothing makes any sense."

Except for that plan. Which is precisely why his suggestion ill fall on deaf ears unless there is an outright revolt. Changes have to be coming, but to what extent is unclear.

So, in conclusion, the bowls themselves are corrupt and in cahoots with university presidents looking only to protect their prestige and cash flow; division-winning teams are penalized for earning the right to play for a conference title; the coaches vote purely on their own self-interests; and the Harris Poll uses individuals that have as much knowledge of college football as my cat.

And you're still going to tell me there isn't a better way?