Ideal finish to wacky season would be playoff

As is the case virtually every season, college football fans are griping about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system and clamoring for a playoff. The clamoring has reached a fevered pitch because of the wild 2007 season, and the completely flawed system we are stuck with.

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Ohio State gets to play for the national title despite playing Akron, Youngstown State and Washington out of conference and not beating a single top-20 team all season.

Louisiana State is in despite losing to Arkansas down the stretch and being one of 10 two-loss teams in college football.

Who's to say Georgia, Oklahoma and Southern California are not just as deserving? Sure, Georgia did not win a conference title, but neither did Nebraska in 2001 and Oklahoma in 2003, yet both played for a national championship.

Also, Georgia beat Florida by 12, Auburn by 25 and Kentucky and Georgia Tech by double digits, too, as they won their final six games.

The bottom line is this system is a joke. So if I were running college football, here is a look at what would be coming up over the next few weeks.

I would incorporate the bowl games in my system with a slight change.

The following bowls must be played Dec. 8-27 (excluding Saturday, Dec. 15 and Saturday Dec. 22): Poinsettia, New Orleans, PapaJohns.com, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Motor City, Holiday, Champ Sports, Texas, Emerald, Meineke Car Care, Liberty, Alamo, Independence, Armed Forces, GMAC, International, Humanitarian and the Insight.

The following bowls must be played Dec. 28-31: Sun, Music City, Cotton, Chick-fil-A, Outback, Gator and Capitol One.

Now for the playoffs, I would make conference play very important by giving the conference champion from the six major conferences automatic bids.

Then I would utilize the BCS standings to select 10 at-large teams. This way I am also still using the BCS, just not allowing it to decide the national title.

The six conference champs and the top two at-large teams would get home-field advantage in round one of the playoffs on Dec. 15 (teams from the same conference cannot play each other in the first round).

Round One,

Saturday, Dec. 15

Boston College at Ohio State (Big Ten champ)

Clemson at LSU (SEC champ)

Tennessee at Virginia Tech (ACC champ)

Florida at Oklahoma (Big 12 champ)

Illinois at Georgia (at-large No. 1)

Arizona St. at Missouri (at-large No. 2)

Hawaii at Southern California (Pac-10 champ)

Kansas at West Virginia (Big East champ)

Round Two,

Saturday, Dec. 22

(For argument's sake, let's say top seed wins)

Orange Bowl, Ohio State vs. West Virginia

Sugar Bowl, LSU vs. Southern California

Fiesta Bowl, Virginia Tech vs. Missouri

Rose Bowl, Georgia vs. Oklahoma

The BCS Semifinals will be played at a five-site rotation including Tempe, Ariz.; Los Angeles; New Orleans; Kansas City; and Miami.

Tuesday, Jan. 1

(Again, assuming the top seeds win)

Ohio State vs. Oklahoma

LSU vs. Va. Tech

The BCS Championship Game will be at the same site as the semifinals.

Tuesday, Jan. 8

Ohio State vs. LSU

Obviously, these two would likely not face one another, but even if they did at least it would be determined on the field.

No team would be allowed to play more than 11 games in the regular season. Therefore, the most games any team could play would be 16. That would only be if a team won its conference title game and went all the way to the BCS Championship Game.

This is based on a 16-team playoff (which I prefer). An eight-team playoff would be great, too, and that would even be easier to pull off.