Has there ever been more of a jumble of great teams in college football than there are this year?  Here’s the most staggering number for the teams in the Top 10, the combined record of those teams is 103-8.  Three of Top 10 teams are undefeated (Alabama, Utah, Boise State), six of the last seven have just one loss (Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas Tech, Penn State, USC), the last of which being Ohio State who rounds out the Top 10 with two losses on the year.

Still, with all that said, the BCS has yet another problem.  We talk about this every single year, and yet we still don’t have a playoff system in place.  So, let’s start with the National Championship game.  At this point, you have to have Alabama in as the #1 team in the country, I don’t think you can dispute that at all with impressive wins against Clemson, Georgia and LSU, all three of those games were on the road.  But they still have their showdown against Florida looming next weekend.  Alabama wins that game and there’s no way you can’t tell me they’re the best in the country. 

Assuming Alabama has the first spot, who faces the Crimson Tide in the National Championship game?  Texas has a win over Oklahoma, #1 at the time, on a neutral field as well as wins over Missouri and Oklahoma State before falling 39-33 to Texas Tech in Lubbock, then a more than convincing win over Texas A&M last night 49-9.

What about aformentioned Oklahoma?  With exception to their loss to Texas, has their been a better team in college football team this season?  Like Texas last night, the Sooners made easy work of Texas Tech last Saturday 65-21 in a game that wasn’t close from the very start.  Here’s the one argument I’ll make against Oklahoma.  The Top 25 teams they did play, and get wins over (TCU, Kansas, Texas Tech) were all played at home but they still have #11 Oklahoma State coming up this weekend, that game will be played in Stillwater, OK on the campus of Oklahoma State, so their season isn’t yet over.

Moving on to the Florida Gators.  They had an impressive start to their season, outscoring their opponents 112-19 in their first three games before suffering a 31-30 loss at home to Ole Miss.  Since then, the’ve run off a 7-game win streak including wins over LSU (#4 at the time), Georgia (#8 at the time) and South Carolina (#24 at the time).  But their season isn’t over yet.  They’ve got #23 Florida State in Tallahassee coming up on Saturday and then a showdown with #1 Alabama in Gainsville next Saturday.  Win those two games, and the Gators might overtake the Crimson Tide for the #1 team in the country.

The remaining six teams (USC, Texas Tech, Utah, Penn State, Boise State and Ohio State) have to have some serious help to even sniff the National Championship game, but I just don’t see how it isn’t two of Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama aren’t in the title game in January.

With that being said, let’s assume Alabama loses to Florida and it’s less than a 10 point game and assuming then that Florida gets the top spot in the BCS, can you not make an argument still for Alabama or how about Oklahoma as dominant as they’ve been or even Texas with their win over then #1 Oklahoma on a nuetral site?  How has the BCS helped College Football?  Has there been 1 year where there hasn’t been an argument over who got the short end of the stick or who didn’t belong in the Championship game?  So, why then, is a playoff such a horrible idea?  If a playoff system were to have, let’s say the Top 8 teams, that’s 4 games in the first round, a semi-final and then the championship game.  You’re extending a team’s season by 3 games, is that really more than a player can handle?

Let’s look at the Top 8 teams and go through what a playoff would look like.

Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, USC, Utah, Texas Tech, Penn State (outside looking in: Boise State, Ohio State)

First round: 

#1 Alabama v. #8 Penn State

#2 Texas v. #7 Texas Tech

#3 Oklahoma v. #6 Utah

#4 Florida v #5 USC

Assuming no upsets, which I’m sure there might be at least one…

Semi-Final:

#1 Alabama v #4 Florida

#2 Texas v #3 Oklahoma

National Championship:  #1 Alabama v #2 Texas

You can’t tell me the ratings wouldn’t be off the charts for every one of those games.  For those of you who think a playoff is a bad idea, I’d love to hear your reason why what I just proposed is the worst idea.  The BCS needs to go, the sooner, the better.

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