BCS National Championship: Are We There Yet?

Well, at least, it was ...

From the Ducks' high-speed offense, to coach Chip Kelly's rapid-fire responses, to the program's fast-tracked success, the Ducks and their fans are accustomed to picking up the pace.

And that explains why the last four weeks have felt like years.

Oregon's 37-20 Civil War victory over Oregon State in Corvallis brought an end to the regular season and brought on the beginning of The Great Wait. By the time kickoff rolls around for the Ducks' BCS National Championship game against Auburn on Jan. 10, more than five weeks will have passed since that victory over the Beavers.

Day One of The Great Wait was Sunday, Dec. 5, when the Ducks were formally announced as a participant in the national title game in Glendale, Arizona.

Jan. 10 -- gameday -- will be Day 37.

Thirty-seven days between games?!?!?

Absurd.

And the worst part is, the Ducks' wait isn't even the longest of the bowl season. By the time they kick off the Sugar Bowl on January 4, both Ohio State and Arkansas will have waited 38 days to play in a game.

Of course, a playoff could fix such ridiculous time-lapses, but I'm not going to waste your time with yet another "college football needs a playoff system" column. It's been written, over and over again, and many, many people have said that dumping the BCS and adding a playoff would be the greatest thing to happen to college football since cheerleaders.

They're right, it would. But it ain't gonna happen. The guys responsible for keeping the system the way it is are making more money than the gross national product of many small countries just by keeping the system the way it is.

So I'm not going to waste time writing about how cool a playoff would be, and how wonderful college football would be if we didn't have computer formulas and AQ conferences and never-ending debates about who deserves to be in which game. I'm not going to point out that the NCAA basketball tournament is the single greatest sporting event of each year, and that an NCAA football tournament would simply blow it out of the water, both in terms of excitement and total earnings for schools and conferences.

I'm not going to do any of that.

I'm just going to complain that I've been waiting more than a month and have to another entire week before I get to see my Ducks play football again.

Because I'm an Oregon fan, and around here, things move at a much faster pace.