Stop the insanity

Let's start with this premise: no matter what happens Sunday, it's going to be preposterous. Somebody's gonna get screwed. I think it will be Georgia.

I know I've said before that my personal belief is that a team that doesn't win its conference should not be able to play for the national championship. I still believe that. However, my personal belief matters not in this case. It's well within the provisions of the BCS system for such a team to play for the title, as Mark Richt continues to point out.

And here's the thing. Tell me who among the legitimate title game contenders is playing better than Georgia right now. The only team you can convince me on that point over Georgia is USC. And they're probably not getting in, either.

Among the other options:
* LSU? Yeah, they won the SEC, but they would have lost tonight if not for Erik Ainge pooping the bed in the fourth quarter. And they lost LAST WEEK AT HOME for goodness sakes.

* Virginia Tech? They lost by 41 points earlier this season. Yeah, they won the ACC but the ACC is a garbage conference. Plus their quarterback's Sean Glennon and I'd bet all my worldly possessions he throws at least two picks in the national title game.

* Oklahoma? Yeah, they beat Missouri twice, but I'm not sure that means as much as Bob Stoops might have you believe. Plus, they lost two weeks ago to unranked Texas Tech and gave up 473 yards in the process.

* Kansas? They also lost LAST WEEK. And let's be honest, they got fat and happy (yeah, that was a Mangino joke) on a pathetic non-conference schedule before squeaking their way through a soft league schedule full of mediocre Big 12 North teams.

* Ohio State? The only argument I have against them is that they lost two games ago. The Buckeyes' schedule isn't especially strong, but I feel like the Big 10 champs belong in the big game.

* USC? Might have blown its chances by losing to 4-8 Stanford, a 41-point underdog, in one of the biggest upsets in college football history. I think the Trojans are playing as well as or better than anybody right now, though.

* Hawaii? I couldn't even discuss this with a straight face. Let them be in the BCS and that's enough.

Here's the point. I don't think Georgia necessarily deserves to play in the national championship game, but who does? How can you possibly say X team deserves this opportunity over Y? It's completely subjective. This is why I can't understand why people allow this bastardized version of an otherwise great game to continue. You'll never convince me that whoever is eventually named the national champion is a legitimate champion or the absolutely-for-certain best team in the country, just as you couldn't convince me of that in 2004 or 2003 or 1997 or 1994 or 1993 or 1990. It's such a fascinating, great game and then it completely ruins itself with a horrible ending about every other year. It's like the end of The Sopranos. It's great the whole way through and it strings you along waiting for this great ending and then...plop, we're done, no true resolution. Some bowl fatcat might tell you that's what's great about college football, that it creates excitement and discussion. I call bullcrap on that. It's by far the worst thing about an otherwise great sport.