No way 'round it: Opponents of playoff are flat-out lost in space

Members of the Flat Earth Society apparently believe that astronauts are Siegfried and Roy in protective garb. The pictures sent back to Earth are dismissed as optical illusions. And we didn't send a man to the moon.

It's like the BCS. When your info is an illusion, your conclusions are unreal. The official rules of the BCS run more than 1,000 words and read like one of those contracts on the back of a credit card bill. The long and short of it is the BCS is intended to choose the top two teams; that's it.

Juice Williams and the Illini will rule the Big Ten within three years -- but right now, they're not the right foes for USC. (US Presswire)

Let's put it this way: There are too many dogs in this hunt. When you have well over 100 people involved in a decision, overlain by computer programs and subjective voters who are both bound to be faulty, you end up with what we see every year: a beauty contest without the judges seeing the contestants. Forget about the system and look at the results. As doctors say, we're in for bad outcomes.

If you want to get a handle of the strength of teams, check the line created by the gamblers in Las Vegas. You can bet these people look at games from every conceivable direction, and they're often right on the mark. Those of you given to knee-jerk reaction, don't start any rumors that "Tillman is an idiot! He's now for gambling." Well, actually, my wife may confirm the former, but the latter simply isn't true. I'm trying to make a point here. I don't think we should turn the football polls over to the gamblers, but I do know this: This year is a perfect setup for a plus-one playoff system.

But first, baby steps. The decision makers aren't ready for the Full Monty. It will take more time for them to sort out their prior defenses to their bogus claim that a playoff is not in the best interest of the student-athlete and college football. A brazen flip-flop would require some fancy spin-doctoring. Bright-eyed wisdom will one day reign supreme among college presidents. Eventually, in some form, the existing bowl structure will serve as playoff brackets, but until then, let's look at the here and now.

There's one-loss Ohio State, which has the easiest path to paydirt -- a weak schedule in an ever weaker conference, with no championship-game hurdle to clear -- about to sit on its hands for 51 days. It could be déjà vu all over again.

Among the two-loss teams, LSU has come through the wringer called the SEC, losing in two triple overtimes; Georgia, one of the hottest teams in the country, is out in the cold; and USC, loaded for bear, is staying home to play 9-3 Illinois -- a team I believe will be the best in the Big 10 within three years.

But right now, Illinois is in the Rose Bowl because of tradition more than the team's performance. Sixth-ranked, 10-2 USC vs. fourth-ranked, 10-2 Georgia is a much more appealing contest, don't you agree? Can you imagine that television rating? Instead, the Big Ten's longstanding partnership with the Pac-10 was leveraged to facilitate Illinois's appearance in the Granddaddy of Them All.

Spare me the legalese. I know what the BCS rules state, regarding what happens when a conference's champion is playing in the championship game. The truth is, back-door deals are struck all the time when obvious exceptions should be made. This time around the Big Ten wouldn't play ball. As result, 13th-ranked Illinois will play USC in the Rose Bowl. Real football fans know this arranged marriage just isn't right. Thanks, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney. You protected your constituency well.

My perfect BCS final four would be USC vs. Georgia and LSU vs. Ohio State, and the two winners of our four-team tourney would play for the national title. Sure, it means that two teams would end up playing 14 games. So what? When I played at OU we had a 10-game schedule. Two decades later we're at 12.

A playoff, or whatever you call it, isn't new by any means. Last summer, at the SEC business meetings, University of Florida president Bernie Machen briefly took the point on the issue. His was the first substantive move on the matter since the debate began. Then the elder SEC establishment reined him in.

At the time, I viewed Machen like a CEO who understands that a company needs a structure and intellectual power base to compete in the world economy. He saw what all of us saw on the field: opportunity and change. Alas, it would become clear that he too had sipped the conference Kool-Aid.

On and off the field, we're in a new world of college football. We kicked off the year with Appalachian State proving that the spread offense, when carried out by skilled players, can make offenses built around steamrollers look like, well steamrollers.