Why a College Football Playoff Will Never Work

The final NFL Sunday of the regular season has come and gone in breathtaking fashion. We were all riveted by the failures of the Bucs and the Cowboys, the resilience of the Dolphins, and the good fortune of the Eagles. Every football fan is now anxiously awaiting the start of the NFL playoffs while also wondering why college football can't do the same thing.

The problem lies in what happened on Sunday for college football. There was no waiting for polls or computer rankings Monday morning. The NFL went into its last regular season weekend with clearly defined scenarios and no room for personal bias or opinion. The teams earned their spots based on their record, no more, no less. That will never happen in college football.

We've heard for years that college football needs a four, eight, or even 16-team playoff, any of which would destroy the bowl system further. Yet how do we determine who would be in these mythical playoffs? Yes, with the same BCS system that everyone hates so much to begin with.

Who would you leave out in a four-team playoff this year? One-loss USC? One-loss Penn State? Undefeated Utah? One-loss Texas Tech?

The simple truth about college football is that determining a "true" national champion is impossible, which is why before the BCS teams only won "mythical" national championships. There are too many teams in FBS (I-A) football to whittle down the number to four or eight properly because it's all subjective. There aren't enough games to prove who is actually the best, and even if there were, the top teams don't play each other.

If you want to know the root of college football's evil, look at the national title game and realize that Oklahoma and Florida have never played. Ever. Why would they? Look at Ohio State this year. If they had avoided USC, they would also be 11-1 and probably peeping about a national title.

Each year, we go into the bowl season without knowing how good teams really are compared to the rest of the country because the inter-conference clashes rarely exist. Only the Ohio State/USC game matched two top 10 teams from different conferences. We find out after the bowl games which teams were actually good, which conferences were overrated, and, usually, who the best teams really are.

Yet the season ends in early December without this knowledge. We have a title game that rarely pits the two best teams except in those glorious years there are two, and only two, undefeated teams. The BCS has basically created a two-team playoff, one that has relegated the other bowls to exhibition status and a punch line for hack sportswriters. (Oooh, the Toilet Bowl, how original.)

But there was a time when the bowl season was glorious, before the BCS, when anybody in the top five, even top 10 depending on the matchups, had a shot at a national title. It may not have been realistic, but they weren't eliminated.

There were up to four bowl games that mattered, and the other bowl games felt like they meant something just because they weren't referred to as exhibitions. Everything felt more important than it may have been.

That's why my solution is to put the bowls back the way they were. Big Ten/Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl every year. SEC champ to the Sugar, Big XII champ to the Fiesta, and the ACC champ to the Orange Bowl. Throw the Cotton in as a fifth BCS game, and give that to the Big East champ or the top non-BCS school. Create the best matchups from those tie-ins and let's play it out first.

THEN, we choose the best two teams. In essence, the entire bowl season will be another week to the regular season with every game determining how good each conference is, how good teams really are, and who belongs in the title game—except instead of another regular season week of cupcakes, it's the best against the best.

Watch ratings soar. Watch hype build as sportswriters actually talk about the games and scenarios instead of moaning about the good ol' days and the BCS.

Is it perfect? No. But that's the real issue. There is no perfect solution for college football. If all we can ever do is crown a mythical national champion, can't we at least have some fun doing it?