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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grip on Sports: The college football season comes to an end tonight, though the champion will still be debatable

Alabama head coach Nick Saban has taken the Crimson Tide to a level never before seen in college football. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • After an up-and-down weekend of NFL football, quite possibly illustrated completely in one Cam Newton sack and his post-play stumble to the ground, Monday brings us a college football championship game featuring the best two teams from around the nation. Maybe. Read on.

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• There was a celebration at Disney World yesterday. No, not the usual one. One honoring the University of Central Florida as the national champions. Is it? Not really.

Yes, the Knights won all 13 games they played. Yes, they won their conference, the American, a decent-enough league with a couple of other good teams. And yes, they defeated Auburn in the Peach Bowl, the same Auburn team that handed Georgia and Alabama, tonight’s two participants in the CFB title game, their only losses.

All that is true.

But UCF never really had a chance to prove whether it is the best team in the country. The four-team series that bills itself as a playoff was never going to be open to it. Just like its predecessor, the BCS, was never really open to any but the traditional powers.

And that’s the problem.

The NCAA sponsor Division III football. No athletic scholarships are awarded. The participants are students who happen to play football. And yet, this academic-oriented classification has a 32-team playoff. Fewer regular-season games, sure, but a 32-team playoff.

Division II has a playoff. So does the Football Championship Subdivision, whose name tells you so.

And yet the best we get with the best schools a four-team fraud.

Defenders will tell you – and have, loudly – this is great because regular-season games matter. How is that true when a school that plays in the division, playing a regular-season schedule just like everyone else, wins all of its games and not invited to the party? UCF’s regular-season games never mattered. Not one bit. Win all 12, lose all 12, the Knights had just as good a chance of making the final four either way.

The regular-season matters only to a select few. Ohio State lost a game by 31 points to an average Iowa team and was the last team out of the playoffs. The Buckeyes were 11-2 but, you know, every regular-season game matters.

Alabama doesn’t win its division of its conference, losing to a team that would eventually lose to UCF and yet the Crimson Tide are in the title game. But, you know, every regular-season game matters.

Georgia lost to Auburn as well. Oklahoma lost to Iowa State. Clemson lost to Syracuse. UCF never lost. But, you know, every regular-season game matters.

That argument isn’t really true. Maybe it’s time to admit it. The regular season isn’t some crying child in the playground that needs to be protected. It can stand on its own, just like college basketball’s regular season does.

It’s time for a 16-team playoff. A true playoff. Skip the intermediate step, pick the 16 top teams and have them play. Use the bowls. Use whatever. Just get it done. Let the UCFs of the world try to win four games in five weeks are whatever. See if the Knights and its ilk really are the best. Let them prove it. Or let Georgia, Alabama or anyone have a legitimate shot at winning a legitimate title. Not some phony four-team, three-game series billed as a “playoff.”

It’s time. It’s past time.

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WSU: The Cougars’ women’s basketball team lost a Pac-12 game Sunday on a foul called well after the buzzer had sounded. A foul that occurred in regulation time, sure, but took replay to sort out. It seems like a very Pullman-like ending. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Stanford hit a half-court shot last night to upset USC. But the game shouldn’t have come down to it. The Trojans were in control and took their foot off the gas. … Arizona State tried to beat up Utah. The Sun Devils’ physical game plan worked, despite being deservedly called for more fouls than a Pete Carroll-coached team. … Colorado has been good at home. Not so on the road. … Arizona doesn’t seem like Arizona. … Basketball is a family business for these brothers. … In football, Oregon wants to return to the national spotlight.

Gonzaga: Mark Few would like his bigs to play with more consistency. A few more weekends like the one just passed would be nice. Jim Meehan has a story on the bigs’ big weekend. … Around the WCC, BYU reverted to its old form in an upset loss at Pacific.

Indians: Former Spokane Indian manager Rob Picciolo died last week. Jim Price has Picciolo’s obituary.

Seahawks: John Schneider won’t be working in Green Bay this week. Or this year. The Packers went another direction. … Newton, under new rules instituted by the NFL after Russell Wilson’s incident, seemingly should have been examined in the locker room. He wasn’t. 

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• So who you got winning the national championship tonight? Alabama, Georgia or UCF? Think about this nugget. If the polls still picked the national champion, UCF would have had a better chance to win a title in August than it actually did. Until later …