BCS bologna

Crowning a college football champion without it being decided on the field is the antithesis of football. It’s un-American. It’s like kissing your sister. It’s like kissing your un-American sister.

In the early days of the game, when nobody but Yale and Princeton dominated the sport, it was a heck of a lot easier to judge because all they basically had to do was beat Harvard. Today, it’s a lot trickier.

This season presented a few head scratchers. Boise State ran the table during the regular season, but a quick glance at its schedule in comparison to, say, Ohio State’s would lead you to believe that the Buckeyes were the better team. The same could even be said for teams with one or two losses under their belt, such as Pete Carrol’s vaunted USC program. But Boise State demolished Oregon State, which beat USC. Does that compute? Apparently it does because according to most rankings, Boise State was in the top five at season’s end.

Does anyone believe that Boise State could beat USC, which (as of this writing) has lost only three games in the past four years? Could they hang against the Buckeyes, with their colossus of a football program? Could a team out of the WAC step onto an SEC field every week and come out with 12 wins? Common sense tells us no, but when fans are left arguing over things like common opponents, who cares?

This year, 10 of the top-ranked teams — the conference champion from each of the six BCS conferences plus four other “at-large” selections — will be included in the Bowl Championship Series. The top two teams will be pitted in the BCS National Championship Game, and the winner will be declared national champion. Sounds fair enough, but it doesn’t go far enough.

The NCAA can certainly put together a “tournament of champions” that pits all of the undefeated teams in a season-ending tournament. Why shut out Boise State when all the Broncos did was win every game they were supposed to win? Let the Ohio States of the world prove it on the field, which their players are more than willing to do.

If you’re going to play king of the mountain, let all of the teams on the hill.