They Send You Off to College, Try to Gain a Little Knowledge

I've never been a fan of Brent Musberger's, but last night, my dislike for the man who fancies himself the voice of college football reached a new high. When it became apparent that the Dark Side (see Sooners, Oklahoma) were going to defeat the (briefly) #1 Missouri Tigers in the Big XII Championship game and the West Virginia Mountaineers had already fallen to their bitter rivals, the Pitt Panthers, Musberger and his cohort, Kirk Herbstreit, turned to the topic that has been passed around more than blame for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction": The BCS v. a playoff system

The pros and cons of the subject have already been beaten into the ground (my esteemed colleague Lance Agan recently laid out his playoff dream), so I will spare you a recitation of those arguments. Instead, I would like to respond to the response of Musberger and Herbstreit to the pro-playoff argument. Well, I would except for the fact that they dismissed such an argument with a hand wave and four simple words: "It will never happen." You would have thought that they were responding to a presentation from the Flat Earth Society or People for Lindsey Lohan Adopting a Healthy Lifestyle (To my knowledge this is not a real group, but it certainly should be).

Unless Kirk and Brent are privy to some highly-classified position paper from the college football powers that be on the subject, I would advise them to avoid speaking in absolutes. Under the system that they cherish, the college football fanbase will have to watch a matchup between a 1-loss team and a 2-loss team to determine the National Championship. What's that you say? Isn't there at least one undefeated team left in Division I-A?(I refuse to call it the Football Bowl Subdivision)

For their flawless run thus far the Hawaii Warriors only receive an invitation to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl. In every other NCAA-sanctioned sport, the Warriors would have the opportunity, albeit a difficult one, to win the championship. For now, they must settle for the (probably accurate) assessment that their schedule is far too soft to allow their undefeated record to stand as a compelling argument for their inclusion on the biggest stage that college football has to offer.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see LSU quarterback and Tyler native Matt Flynn bring home a National Championship for the Tigers instead of the Buckeyes, but such a matchup just seems light years away from the mythical duel between the 'Horns and the Trojans on January 4, 2006.

I guess they just don't make them like they used to.