The Andrew Extravaganza

After weeks of anticipation, the regular season has finally ended with a BCS disaster scenario. After winning the Southeastern Conference with an undefeated record, Auburn looks to be left out of the Orange Bowl. How can you win the best conference in college football and still not get in the big game? The answer has very little to do with the talent of the top 3 teams (USC, OU, AU). Take a look at the preseason rankings of each of the teams: USC - 1st in AP, 1st in Coaches; OU - 2nd in AP, 2nd in Coaches; AU - 17th in AP, 18th in Coaches. From the very beginning Auburn has been on the outside looking in. The AP and Coaches polls should not be voted on until the season has been underway for at least a month, maybe longer. This would allow the polls to reflect the actual on field results rather than adjusting to errors in the preseason rankings based on last year's results and offseason moves.

Of course this still doesn't help when three traditional powerhouse programs finish undefeated. The hypocrites (university presidents and ADs) refuse to allow a playoff system because it would mean "student" athletes would miss much more class time. Last time I checked, football is almost always played on weekends, but the basketball programs are traveling on the road in the middle of the week for about 4 months. The real reason is that the BCS cartel of major conferences is afraid that a playoff system will jeopardize the huge cash flow created by the bowl system. But what these hypocrites and traditionalists refuse to admit is that there are quite a few great ideas for a playoff that will still keep the regular season very meaningful.

Here is my Top 16 after the regular season:

Rank	Helmet	School	Record	Big Wins	Losses
1		Oklahoma	12-0 (9-0)	#Texas, TxTech, @TxA&M	None
2		Southern Cal	12-0 (8-0)	#VaTech, Cal, ArizSt	None
3		Auburn	12-0 (9-0)	LSU, @/#Tenn, UGA	None
4		Texas	10-1 (7-1)	@TxTech, @Col, TxA&M	#Oklahoma
5		Utah	11-0 (7-0)	TxA&M, UNC, @N.Mex	None
6		California	10-1 (7-1)	UCLA, ArizSt, @OreSt	@USC
7		Georgia	9-2 (6-2)	LSU, #Florida, @S.Car	Tenn, @Auburn
8		Virginia Tech	10-2 (7-1)	UVA, @Miami, UNC	#USC, NCST
9		Louisiana St	9-2 (6-2)	@Florida, Bama, OreSt	@Auburn, @UGA
10		Louisville	10-1 (8-0)	@Memphis, Cin, @UNC	@Miami
11		Michigan	9-2 (7-1)	Iowa, NWst, Purdue	@ND, @OhioSt
12		Iowa	9-2 (7-1)	OhioSt, Purdue, Wisc	@ArizSt, @Mich
13		Tennessee	9-3 (7-2)	Florida, @UGA, @S.Car	Auburn, ND, #Auburn
14		Miami	8-3 (5-3)	FSU, Louis, @UVA	@UNC, Clemson, VaTech
15		Boise State	11-0 (8-0)	OreSt, @UTEP, FresnoSt	None
16		Florida State	8-3 (6-2)	UVA, @Syr, UNC	Florida, @Miami, @UMD

The top 3 are so close that I just ranked them randomly. There are strong arguments for all three teams and each has very minor reasons why they should be left out. It's purely an opinion and there is no way that I can be convinced that one of three deserves an Orange Bowl berth more than the other two.

Phil Steele has been advocating a 4 team playoff system because he has shown that in any given year, no more than 3 teams have a strong claim for a national title shot. Using that system, I think your playoff would be USC vs Utah and OU vs Auburn.

Personally, I would prefere a 6 team playoff with the top two teams receiving a first round bye. In this system you could use the four current BCS bowl games along with the Cotton Bowl to host your playoffs. My opinion doesn't count for much though.

Later on today the BCS will have a selection show. Auburn will get screwed and so will Texas (but to a much lesser degree). There will be some bitching and moaning, but probably very little change for next season. I love college football and I love the bowl games, but how great would it be to see my top 6 teams slug it out beginning on New Year's Day?