The current BCS setup is stupid. Everybody knows this. Even if the whole bowl thing is pretty cool, which it certainly is, it has commonly been accepted that a playoff system would be a much better and saner way of going about things. A simple 8 team, 3 round affair would do. Nothing complicated, just a straight up single elimination tournament to keep the big conferences happy and let one or two mid-majors have their moment in the sun. It’d be worth it just to let the little guys have a shot. Imagine Boise State from a few years ago, toppling Oklahoma, getting a chance to turn their amazing comeback into a national championship bid. How amazing would that hook-and-ladder play have been, in that case?

Oh, and of course, none of that silly split championship stuff anymore….

Unfortunately, the only people in the world who have not thought this through also happen to be the people who run the BCS. So, no matter how much I complain, the championship for the BCS will be decided by just 2 polls which inherently bias certain teams and conferences rather than by actual competition.

Well, if the NCAA is not going to indulge my fantasy of allowing Alabama, Texas Tech, Florida, Texas, USC, Oklahoma, Penn State, and Utah square off in a three round competition for the title, then I guess I’m just going to have to dream.

Every year, I dream of BCS possibilities. Like every fan of a team who has no shot at it all (read: Notre Dame), I just want the most absurd matchup imaginable. USC-Florida? Boring. Alabama-Texas? No way. I’m looking for Texas Tech-Utah, for Boise State-TCU, or for South Florida-Southern Methodist.

Ok, maybe not the last one. But, there is a game, still remotely possible, that I would love to see. And that’s Texas Tech vs. Boise State. Texas-Tech is easily the most exciting team in the country right now. That game against Texas last weekend was the most exciting thing I’ve seen all year. And Crabtree and Harrell made Oklahoma State look silly on Saturday. And that was a top 10 team!

Boise State has always been a pet favorite of mine. The Oklahoma upset a few years back aside, I have always loved what coach Chris Peterson has been able to do with their limited recruiting pull. But for me, I just love the idea of a minor conference team (BSU plays in the WAC) getting a shot in the biggest game of the land. Utah, while having a great year, just doesn’t get me as excited– plus, I suspect they just aren’t as good as either Boise State or Texas Christian (aka TCU). 

So, how would this happen? Well, I’m not going to lie, it’s quite the longshot. But, I think it could very well happen, especially with a very upset-prone Big 12 and SEC. Here’s how I see it going down:

The first step already happened: Penn State had to lose Saturday at Iowa. Penn State, possibly a really talented team, is tainted by its membership in the Big Ten, a conference that has not fared well in recent major bowl play. One loss and their done.

A missed opportunity was LSU losing at home to Alabama. A win by the Bayou Bengals, and Boise State’s odds of getting to the title game improved exponentially. The way I see it, Florida is the real problem here in the SEC. They are the best team in college football, and, because they play in the SEC, I can see them getting into a championship game, much as LSU did last year, by winning the conference title game. Fortunately for fans up in Idaho, Alabama is also in their way. An SEC title game of Alabama-Florida will mean that one of them is bound to lose. So all that needs to happen in Alabama or Florida needs to lose one of their remaining games and then the other needs to win the SEC title. A one-loss Alabama or a two loss Florida will be hard to choose if Boise State is still undefeated. And with games against South Carolina and Florida State still on the schedule for the Gators….

Texas Tech, obviously, needs to win out. That would take care of Oklahoma and Texas, since you can’t have an all Big 12 championship game. 

That leaves USC. Thanks to the incredibly weak PAC-10, the Trojans may find themselves the beneficiary of the collapse at the top which is bound to occur, simply by virtue of the fact that so many of these top ten teams are in the same 2 conferences. But if USC, a team which has a lot of trouble scoring, falls to someone like Oregon State (hmmm, Notre Dame?) once more…

Well, then it’s going to get interesting. Utah, I think, will lose to BYU in their rivalry game. TCU and BYU already have losses. In my eyes, if Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Florida all have two losses, and Alabama is not the SEC champion, I don’t see how the voters can deny Boise State the chance. My dream would be complete.

Is it going to happen? Hell no. The odds are longer than long. Nevertheless, I dream. And in some ways, this dream seems so much more possible than dreams past. Maybe it was just seeing Texas Tech finally beat Texas in such dramatic fashion, but I really think their could be something this preposterous could really be in the making. Here’s hoping!