PLAYOFF?!

Look, I don't know what I think about a potential college football playoff other than it's never likely to happen. Part of me likes the man-to-mouse mortality, the Old West-esque craziness that we experience under the current system.

Another part of me positively salivates at the notion of a December Decadence tournament set-up. All I really know is that bowl system was created essentially to stage exhibitions not decide national champions and the problem lies soley in the expectation of a Super Bowl from a series of preseason (or in this case, post-) games.

That said, you have to go play around with this fake football tournament ESPN.com has set up. You can do this a number of ways (BCS Rankings, Power Poll, etc.) but I recommend the custom ranking. Then you can basically devise your own personal 16-team playoff. Here's what I ended up with in the first round:

#1 USC v. #16 Texas
#2 OU v. #15 Tennessee
#3 LSU v. #14 BC
#4 Ohio State v. #13 Arizona State
#5 UGA v. #12 Hawaii
#6 Missouri v. #11 BYU
#7 West Virginia v. #10 Kansas
#8 Virginia Tech v. #9 Florida

After seeding something called AccuScore simulates round by round. The surprises immediately followed. Arizona State, who hasn't beaten any one of any consequence, upended the Buckeyes confirming my dim view of the Big 10. Kansas beat West Virginia--that would've been a fun one to watch--presumably because AccuScore has accurately calculated Pat White's fumble to carry ratio. And, in the only actual bowl match-up of the group Hawaii beat Georgia.

In the elite eight, Hawaii out-bombed ASU, Oklahoma beat Kansas, USC beat Va. Tech and, the only shocker, Missouri beat LSU. The Tiger love didn't stop there.

Faced with a Final Four rematch, Missouri finally beat Oklahoma and USC predictably walked over Hawaii. Tigers-Trojans?

Sadly this dry run confirmed what many of suspect but are loathe to admit. USC still probably has the best team in the country, but I doubt an even more mythical national championship appearance has soothed any sore feelings in Columbia.

In conclusion, try the fairy tale football playoff game. You'll like it.

I'm going to go run about 549 more simulations.