Barack Obama in 60 Minutes Interview: Let's Have a College Football Playoff!

"There's one too many letters in BCS"-Keith Jackson, formerly the voice of college football.

Now, the President-Elect, "that one", Barack Obama is talking about an 8 team playoff to decide college football's National Champion. In public.

Whoa, Nellie, there, Hoss! Gonna talk 'bout lightnin' strikin' the outhouse, Katie bar tha' door, tha bloom is off'n the rose, gonna tell ya' 'bout Barack Obama's interview with Steve Kroft on 60 minutes!

I can hear the "Big Cigars" of college football now, the poobahs who decide who goes to what bowl and bend over backwards to keep college football from joining the 21st century and having a playoff like every other sport. "Who does this guy think he is? Marriage laws? Don't ask, don't tell. Sociialized medicine, oh well. But you just keep yer paws off college football!". "Bear didn't have no playoffs. Amos Alonzo Stagg didn't have no playoffs, we don't need no stinkin' playoffs!"

Yeah, and the economy is "fundamentally sound". In the 60 minutes interview of Nov. 16, President-Elect Barack Obama uttered the taboo "P" word at the end of the session in response to a question from CBS' Steve Kroft. You know, the word that dares not be spoken in the annals of college football. Playoffs? To quote former New Orleans and Indy coach Jim Mora: "Playoffs?" "Are you kiddin' me?" "Playoffs?"

So Barack Obama said IT. Earlier Obama had said essentially the same thing to Chris Berman the night before the election. And the man still won, although Barack Obama didn't carry most of the more football-crazed parts of the nation. So that's why Obama didn't carry the south?

Seriously, I don't know how much weight Obama's idea will carry with the college football world, but it's nice to see the man's off to a good start as far as common sense solutions, even though I'm sure this topic is way down on his list of priorities. One question I have, though. Does Obama have to give equal time to a voice of opposition, say Joe, "the plumber"?

I can hear Joe Wurzelbacher now. "We don't need a college football playoff. A playoff would be socialism, and would mean death to Israel. Besides, who would buy tickets to the 49th annual TY-D Bowl in beautiful downtown Mobile if we had a spread-the-wealth-college football playoff system?" What will happen to the award that goes to the MVP of the Ty-D Bowl game, you know, the Golden Plunger?"

College football fans, there is the very real possibility of 7 or 8 teams finishing the season with a lone loss or, in the cases of Boise State and Utah, undefeated. Alas, only two teams can play in the BCS National championship game.

If OU defeats Texas Tech in Norman, OK saturday, a very real possibility, then later, OU beats Oklahoma State, Texas Tech closes the regular season with a win over Baylor, and Texas defeats Texas A&M, Texas, OU and Texas Tech would all be 11-1. That would leave a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 South with all three 7-1 in conference. Texas would hold a tiebreaker over OU in a two way tie, but in a three-way, Texas Tech defeated Texas, and if this scenario holds true, OU would have beaten Tech. All three would be 4-1 within the division and 3-0 vs. the Big 12 North. I believe the three-way tiebreaker is whichever is highest in the BCS standings.

Then you have Boise State and Utah. Boise State is an odds on favorite to finish at 12-0. Utah's only hurdle to finish 12-0 is BYU. If BYU wins that game, BYU is 11-1. Teams like Boise State can't play with the "big boys" you say? Has the Fiesta Bowl of only 2 years ago been erased from the record books? You know, the one where BSU won the game over OU with the statue of liberty play in overtime after a hook and lateral on about 4th and 15?

This just in: the BCS standings are the result of some sort of hodge-podge of polls, computer rankings and throwing darts at a dartboard, seemingly. Polls are just OPINION, people! In every other sport, there is a clear-cut definition of who gets in the championship game, The only place for opinion is in how the teams are seeded. Opinion should have NO PART in determining the champion. College football's antiquated, beauty contest of a system to decide who plays in the championship game is a disservice and a travesty to what is otherwise a great game.

Then, at #4 in the polls, the white-hot Florida Gators could (and probably will) finish 12-1 with wins over The Citadel, Florida State and Alabama in the SEC championship game. If USC defeats Notre Dame and UCLA, the Trojans would be 11-1. But wait, USC lost to Oregon State and the Beavers lost to Penn State 45-13. With a win over Michigan state, Penn State would be 11-1. You can downgrade the Pac-10 and Big 10 if you want, but if a team defeats everyone on their schedule or goes 11 or 12-1 they deserve a shot at the Trophy. Period.

Let's take a look at some of the lame arguments against a college football playoff:

1. The players would be out of class too much. I've got to throw down the BS card on that one. College football players miss class a fraction of the amount of classes missed by college basketball players. I don't see anyone trying to go with some hokum, poll-driven way of doing away with the Final 4. And 65 teams are affected by the NCAA Tourney. Only 8 teams, or 16 tops, would be in a college football playoff out of 119. Cut out a regular season non-conference game vs Sam Houston State and plan the playoffs for the time students are out of school anyway. All the other football playing divisions of the NCAA make it happen, you can't make the argument that D1A (or whatever they call it now) cannot.

2. It would be too many games for the poor players. The same people who parrot this line scream like banshees at talk of giving players a monthly stipend to live on as they cannot hold jobs in season. Besides, again, all the other teams in the other divisions of NCAA football play 14-15 games when they go all the way to the finals. Most teams wouldn't be affected, anyway.

3. What about the precious Weedwhacker Bowl and all the other Bowls? What about them? If NCAA basketball can have the NIT for teams not in the NCAA Tournament, why can't the NCAA have Bowls for teams not in a playoff? Any Bowl outside the BCS championship has nothing to do with the national championship, anyway.

4. It would render the regular season meaningless? What!? If you don't win your conference, you don't go to the playoffs, so the regular season games within the conference would mean just as much as now to the national championship.

5. Where would the money come from? A few years ago, Nike offered the NCAA $100 million to stage a playoff. The old farts running the Bowls and the cigar-chompers in the smoke-filled room shot down the proposal. The stakes would be higher now.

6. But the BCS is better than the old way, where #1 and #2 didn't always play against each other. Yeah, and a prostate exam is better than getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick. I don't know anyone who looked forward to their annual prostate exam. The PSA came along, where they stick your finger, instead of sticking a finger in neverland. Big improvement, just as a college football playoff would be a big improvement over the BCS Mess.

7. The "water cooler" argument. You know, the absurd, outlandish crap about how arguing over polls and bowls around various water coolers in workplaces keeps college football a hot topic in conversation. Do the college football poobahs honestly think hard core college football fans wouldn't argue about who was seeded what and sent where versus who in a college football playoff? You betcha they would, as Sarah Palin might chirp in her clipped Fargo accent. A playoff would increase the popularity of college football even more.

I like the Bowls as much as the next guy. I have attended Bowl games in Dallas, Shreveport and Orlando. There is no reason to do away with Bowls just because 8 teams play in a college football playoff.

Here is an example for a college football playoff template:

Take the conference champions of the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big 12, Big 10, and Pac 10. Have a selection committee, as college basketball does, to select 2 at-large teams, either champions of other conferences, independents or teams like the two in the Big 12 this year who are not crowned conference champs.

If you want, the WAC and the Mountain West could be included for 10 teams with the top 2 getting a bye the first week. Add 2 at-large teams for 12 teams, maybe. Here's how 2008 could look:

#1 Seed Texas 12-1 BYE, #2 Florida 12-1 BYE, #3 Oklahoma, 11-1 BYE, #4 Alabama, 12-1 Bye

#5 USC, 11-1-#12 Utah 11-1

#6 Texas Tech, 11-1 - #11 Boise State, 12-0

#7 Penn State- 11-1- #10 BYU, 11-1

#8 Missouri, 10-3- Miami 10-3

The 8-9 winner would get Texas, the 7-10 vs. Florida, the 6-11 vs OU and the 5-12 vs. Alabama

A disclaimer, the records and seedings are hypothetical based on the records I believe the teams will finish with based on looking at each teams' schedule.

You see, it really wouldn't be hard to come up with a college football playoff system. Because of the polls and bowls not wanting to be rendered meaningless is why we have this BCS farce. "Oh, but the Bowls have been good for college football". Yes, they have. But the leather helmet was good for college football at one time. Then, something better came along. College football playoffs, a great idea whose time has come. Actually, the time has long passed, but there's nothing we can do about that now. Maybe I should say, major college football playoffs, since the lower divisions of the NCAA have had playoffs for years. Let's bring major college football into the 20th century before the 21st century has passed!