Like you said, it’s possible that Penn State and Texas Tech are not “just as good” as the rest. Probably Ball State, Utah and Boise State aren’t either. But they could be worth some upsets and that’s what makes March Madness so compelling. I can’t understand why college football doesn’t want the same thing — money and good entertainment.

Nice column, and well written with passion. What you may not recognize in all of this, however, is that with a 16 team playoff (which will never happen BTW), that would add potentially 4 games to the 2 finalists and giving them at least 16 and perhaps 17 games in their season. And there’s no way, period, the NCAA will let that happen. Plus, you have to as they say, “follow the money.” Would you render all the bowl games meaningless? Particularly with all their millions in payouts to the schools and networks?

And finally, while there may be a small clique of schools at the top of the heap, I don’t think PSU and TT would be “just as good” as any of the rest. Personally, the cream of the crop this year is pretty much USC and FL. And yes I know that Bama is undefeated, but they’ll get shellaqued, literally, when they play FL in the SEC champi0onship game. So despite all the rankings and polls etc., none of the rest of the field, I don’t think, will stand up to either FL or USC… and I think USC wins that match. JMHO