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By Patrick Hurley Nov. 20, 2006 The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) for college football continues to be what it has always been... A joke. The only reason we have this absurd system is because the college Bowl lobby is the most powerful entity in amateur sports. They do not want to give up their financial bonanza at the end of the season. As a result, we are stuck in the Dark Ages of Athletics waiting for sanity and common sense to prevail and allow us, as fans, to have a true national champion in college football. As of today, the top two teams in college football according to the complicated BCS combination of polls (guided by monkeys who have had lobotomies) is Ohio State and Michigan. If the season ended today, these would be the finalists in the championship game. For starters, here is why this concept is ridiculous.How can you have a team playing for the national championship of football when they failed to even win their conference? This is not professional sports where they allow teams to participate in the playoffs with losing records. This is college football. Call me silly, but I would favor an eight team playoff restricted to conference champions to determine the best team in the land. If I were drunk, I MIGHT agree to a sixteen team playoff of the top teams, but only if I was duct taped to a pretty blonde naked cheerleader. A second reason why Michigan is undeserving of a shot at glory in the final. Their schedule was suspect. Yes, they beat Notre Dame and Wisconsin, two teams that currently only have one loss. But, neither squad is a powerhouse. Notre Dame fattened up on Penn State, Army, Air Force, North Carolina, Purdue, Duke, Stanford, UCLA and Michigan State. Have you checked their records lately? Duke, Stanford, Army and North Carolina are HORRENDOUS! Penn State, UCLA, Purdue, Air Force and Michigan State are all experiencing down years. Navy is passable and Boston College is better than average. Only USC and Michigan are really good and they lost to Michigan and I predict they will fall to USC this weekend. So...WHO has Michigan beaten? One team of reknown...Wisconsin which is 10-1. Here is WHO they have beaten....Indiana, Bowling Green, Northwestern, Purdue, San Diego State, Minnesota, Illinois, Penn State, Iowa and...Buffalo. Guess how many of those teams will go to a major bowl game? ONE. Their schedule-maker should win a national championship for something. Michigan SHOULD be around 5th in the BCS standings. But, they are rated ahead of USC which has beaten Arkansas (which is playing for the SEC championship), Cal, (which they knocked out of the Rose Bowl) Oregon, Nebraska, (which is playing for the Big 12 championship) and if they beat Notre Dame and UCLA in their last two games they will have beaten five teams that are going to major bowl games. Michigan has beaten two. Gotta love the BCS. The Twisted Sister of intercollegiate sports. In reality, the Ohio State-Michigan game was really not that close. It ended that way on a last minute Wolverine touchdown and two-point conversion that made the final score passable but the game was over in the fourth quarter when the Buckeyes turned up the heat and led 42-31. They let Michigan get close at the end a la a Nascar driver letting his son come in second by maniplating his lead at the end. Yes, it happens. If USC loses either of its two games, then Michigan has as much a right to be there as anyone. Florida is pathetically overrated and West Virginia blew their chance. Arkansas might sneak in, but they are too far back. So, it will either be USC or Michigan....unless Notre Dame miraculously wedges in there at the end. But, the voters REMEMBER the Irish playing Ohio State last year in a bowl game and they were so pititfully embarrassed, no one wants to see another golden calf sacrificed at the Buckeye altar. The Fighting Irish are ferocious on OFFENSE, but their defense couldn't stop a high school team. Someday, we may have a playoff system like we do in basketball, baseball, lacrosse, ice hockey, volleyball et. al...and in women's sports. But, until the NCAA stands up to the Bowl people, there is no way that will happen. Some people like the system the way it is because it generates controversy. That is tantamount to saying we should fix a boxing match so the underdog can win because it will generate controversy... Come to think of it. That is EXACTLY what boxing used to do. Say hello and goodbye Sonny Liston. Welcome Cassius Clay with your phantom punches that would not have affected a seventh grader. Yes, those two fights that introduced the world to Muhammed Ali were fixed... It's better to shatter a dream than conceal the truth. ------------ About the author:   Pat Hurley has won three Emmy awards for writing, hosting and producing television shows. He resides in Southern California. 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