Not perfect, but we'll take it
Suddenly it all makes sense. The two best teams (arguably) in college football, Florida and Oklahoma, will play for the national championship in Miami Jan. 8.
You can argue the flaws of the Bowl Championship Series from now until New Year's Day. You can say it was tough to pick the two most deserving one-loss teams from a group that included Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Southern California, Penn State, and Texas Tech (and from non-BCS but unbeaten Utah and Boise State).
You can say we need a playoff to sort all of this out the right way. And you would be correct. But no one has come up with a plan that would be accepted by the powers who run college football.
Perhaps President-elect Obama can put it on his agenda for after Jan. 20.
But dealing with what we have right now, the BCS title game announced last night between the Southeastern Conference champion Gators and Big 12 champion Sooners seems right.
Florida deserves to be there. It knocked off No. 1 Alabama, 31-20, in the SEC title game in Atlanta Saturday night, completing a run that included a 51-21 blowout of defending national champion Louisiana State, a 56-6 trouncing of South Carolina and former Gators coach Steve Spurrier, a 45-15 romp over rival Florida State, and now a solid victory over the top-ranked team in the country.
"We just beat the No. 1 team in the country" said Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. "Now it's time to play."
Yet who is hotter than the Sooners? They became the first team in college football history to score 60 or more points for five consecutive games against major competition with their 62-21 destruction of Big 12 North champion Missouri Saturday night.
The run started with a 62-28 blasting of Nebraska, then a 66-28 throttling of Texas A&M. Texas Tech was wrecked, 65-21, and then it was Oklahoma State's turn, 61-41. The Sooners' last three foes were all ranked.
And yes, we know Oklahoma's one loss was by 10 points to Texas on a neutral field. But one certainly can make the argument that the Sooners deserve to be at the table when one is talking about the best teams in college football.
Last night, the BCS computers churned out the numbers that put the Gators and Sooners in the title game and sent the other teams to their respective bowl games.
It is, indeed, time to play, but once again there are nagging doubts about whether this is the right way to do it.
Proponents of a playoff system could make the point that this year a 12-team setup would not only have made the regular season relevant, to sort out who was in the top 12, but then there would have been a basketball Final Four type frenzy in the postseason.
This season one could have had a field of the one-loss teams, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Southern Cal, Penn State, and Texas Tech, plus the two unbeatens in Utah and Boise State, two conference champions in Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, and a conference runnerup such as Ohio State.
Who would have gotten left out of that group? Texas Christian, Brigham Young, Oregon? Sorry, let them play in a decent second-tier bowl - like they will this season.
The point is that you could have it all with only minor adjustments. A great regular season, a playoff, and a bowl system. Cut the regular season by one game. Give the top four teams in your playoff system first-round byes, play the first round on campus sites, and then let the fun begin, with quarterfinal games, semifinals, then the title game.
That, of course, is a fantasy for now.
What we do have is this:
Rose Bowl - Penn State vs. Southern Cal, each conference champions with one loss.
Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs. Ohio State, a pair of deserving conference runnerups.
Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs. Utah, a BCS vs. non-BCS matchup with Utah trying on the Cinderella shoes against tougher competition.
Orange Bowl - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech, two surging conference champions.
BCS title game - Florida vs. Oklahoma, two of the hottest team in recent memory and reigning Heisman Trophy winning QB Tim Tebow of Florida vs. a primary contender this season in Oklahoma signal-caller Sam Bradford.
Not bad for a system lots of people say doesn't work, not bad at all.
They bear watching
Big East champion Cincinnati, which will face Atlantic Coast Conference champ Virginia Tech in the Orange, has had a remarkable season. Not only did the Bearcats claim a school-record 11th win Saturday night by coming back to beat Hawaii, 29-24, they got the trip to Hawaii, and now they have earned a week in Miami as a reward. "To get the 11th win on the road against a very good team and a bowl team, that feels good," said Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, who figures to be on athletic directors' short lists if they are looking for new coaches . . . The Heisman race looks wide open as Tebow, Bradford, and Texas QB Colt McCoy should go down to the wire.
Accounting 101
The ACC needs to do a reality check regarding attendance figures for its championship game. The official count for Saturday's game between Virginia Tech and Boston College was 53,927 tickets sold and distributed. The actual count at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa looked like less than half that . . . Final odds from Las Vegas on the SEC title game between Florida and Alabama had the Gators 10 1/2-point favorites. Final score: Florida 31, Alabama 20. Amazing.
Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com. 