[Consolation Brackets]

I'll probably never win an election in my life. Sure people like me, but when it comes time to politick, I'm not good at it. I lost my homeroom's student council election in 7th grade (I think I got two votes, the guy who won never attended any of the meetings, I never filled in as the alternate in protest), I lost the class presidency in 10th grade (I was never serious about it, I ran against 10 other people). Which makes me wonder why anyone would cover college football with a passion. It seems like a fool's game.

Big time college football is a cash cow. The revenue stream it creates for colleges and universities nationwide is immense. These institutions can pack 80,000 strong into a rolling concourse of bleachers on half a dozen weekends every Autumn. Geographically displaced into conferences, a hundred or so teams compete for supremacy and bragging rights. Yet only 20 or so have a legitimate chance of making a run at the national championship. This is true because politics and controversy dictate the landscape of big time college football. Your reputation precedes you everywhere you go. Win and you are golden, lose and you're history. That's the way it should be, but it isn't a level playing field.

Some teams play easy non-conference schedules, some teams play in tough conferences with many talented teams. What is a quality win? My 3 losses are better than your 2 losses. The verdict is currently determined by polls consisting of media members, former coaches, former players and a statistical formulaic analysis of hard data. The shades of gray are ultimately behind my love/hate relationship of college football. I was never a big fan of college football growing up, but recently I've accepted it for what it is. I think Chuck Klosterman put it best when he explained his passion for the sport when he summed it up as an 'event-oriented' experience.

That's what it is - it's hundred year old rivalries, it's meaningless bowl games that'll be forgotten seconds after they transpire, it's a hype machine that lives in the moment, it's all that and then some and then not as much.

With that being said, if Missouri meets West Virginia in the BCS Title Game in New Orleans to kick off 2008, it is what it is. There is no playoff, sure it would bring some clarity to an imperfect system, but boosters all over that continental 48 states would complaining about seeding. And any blowhard that says 'You can't have a playoff because you are already taking kids out of the classroom enough' needs to sit on it. These are grown ass kids, they can wipe their own bums and make their own decisions. Players that'll get drafted in the NFL can get their degrees during the NFL offseason in later years. And for the other players, people can accelerate their course loads to graduate in 2 and a half years. Missing class time, it's not like you get a tuition reimbursement for perfect attendance, you can't even get half price on books you sell back to the bookstore after the course is done, give me a break.

Speaking of colleges and politics - instead of having a Miss USA pageant, they should have a Miss NCAA pageant. You get all the hottest ladies at campuses nationwide (real broads too, not any of these pageant regular Habitat For Humanity gals, I'm talking about the ones that pose in Playboy 'Girls Of Insert Conference Here' issues). It doesn't even have to be sanctioned. You could have traditional rounds like swim wear and evening gown. You could also have rounds like Party Etiquette (just a fancy name for congeniality) and Wet T-Shirt. I'm just making this up, but I could see this going straight to DVD or PPV. Hell, the pageant held at each school would be worth it.