Kerkoff Expounds on the "System"

Bowls vs Playoff

Blair Kerkoff offers what I believe is supposed to be a clever little attack on the idea of a college playoff in today's edition of the KC Star. Tell it to Boise State, buddy. For believers in the current bowl system, there are three items you need to fix:

• Eliminate approximately 10-15 bowls, then maybe we can talk about the "tradition" of the bowls.
• Play the games on or around New Years Day. Around means Dec 31 and Dec 30, period.
• Stop talking about a national champion -- AP, UP, USA Today or CNN -- it just doesn't exist. That's okay, if you'll just stop trying to crown some sort of champion with a popularity poll.

Fix those items and I'll back off the idea of a playoff. I'm a traditionalist. I like the old school bowl system.  And I'm fine with the way the Big 12 Championship game fits in with the bowls. In the current setup, that's what I consider to be the big game. Nothing else matters. The farce that the NCAA puts on afterwards is out of our hands and truly embarrassing, but the Big 12 Championship game makes sense to me.

I find the defense of excluding Boise State in the current system to be pretty appalling. Don't get me wrong. I do not think Boise State is better than Florida or Ohio State. However, they are undefeated and they are in D-1 football. If you are not going to include them in the system then don't allow them to be a D-1 team. You can't have it both ways NCAA -- they're in or they're not.

The traditionalists are all over the January 8 date as well. Too long of a season. Not enough time to talk about the NFL playoffs. Here, how about they play on Tuesday or Wednesday, then you can talk about 30-year-old multi-millionaire free agent mercenaries collecting additional checks playing a child's game all day on Monday.

Another big argument for the bowl guys is the idea that a playoff will diminish the regular season games. Sure, you could easily breeze through a schedule losing four or five games and still qualify for an 8-, 10- or a 16-team playoff out of 119 teams. Give me a break. It would be a dogfight to get in all year.

Bottom line. Go old school bowl system or go playoff, but get it done. The in-between is not working.