BCS Menu Force Feeds Us With Mush

The BCS in its infinite wisdom has announced the college football bowl games at the end of this season featuring a national championship game between Alabama, which played out of its gourd the best game of its season beating Florida last Saturday, and Texas which was lucky to defeat just about the worst offensive team in Nebraska and failed to beat any team that finished in the top 20.

Undefeated Cincinnati plays one-loss Florida in the Sugar Bowl. And the two undefeated non-BCS schools Boise State and TCU play in the Fiesta Bowl, a repeat of last year's Pointsettia Bowl in San Diego.

I ask you. How long will the public tolerate this nonsense? Let these teams duke it out on the field in a 16-team single elimination playoff just as every other sport does, including the lower division college football conferences.

John Feinstein, the renowned columnist for the Washington Post, writes about the folly of the Bowl Championship Series. He compares inviting TCU and Boise State to a BCS bowl game is the same as inviting a couple to dinner as long as they eat in the kitchen..

Because the bowl games have contractual ties to conferences, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego really takes it in the shorts in a game between Pac 10 runner-up Arizona against the offensively challenged Nebraska Cornhuskers (even though its defense is one of the best in the nation).

The bowls are designed to make money for the conferences with pittances thrown to charities. But who the hell wants to attend a game other than the student body and alums for such bowl games as Wyoming vs. Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl at Albuquerque, Rutgers vs. Central Florida in the St. Petersburg Bowl and Middle Tennessee State vs. Southern Miss in the New Orleans Bowl?

And, what does it prove with the better known schools, the likes of which are North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh in the Meineke Car Care Bowl at Charlotte, N.C., Georgia vs. Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl at Shreveport, La., Stanford vs. Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl at El Paso, Texas, and Iowa vs. Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl at Miami.

I wouldn't consider these matchups made in heaven, especially since they don't decide much more than bragging rights.

Instead, we are forced-fed the bowl games where tradition is paramount and we can let our prejudices play out . Resigned to that fact, I take great pleasure in watching this year's Rose Bowl where my beloved Oregon Ducks will run circles around Ohio State,.this year's Big Ten sacrificial lamb.