I had a conference administrator tell me there is dread over the thought of college football’s regular season losing its sizzle with the implementation of a playoff system. It has happened with basketball and the administrators don’t want it to happen in a second sport, football.

Before the BCS, it was rare the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Associated Poll met in a bowl game. Now, it happens all the time.

You don’t like that argument? Here’s another. Try and move 60,000 tickets in five days. Ohio State wins a quarterfinal over West Virginia, then has to travel to Oregon the next week for a semifinal. The tickets are printed Sunday and you have until Friday to get them distributed. I’ve asked ticket managers how easy it would be to manage the process. Easy, if you hire another dozen people or so.

You can bring up 2003 as a year the BCS didn’t work when LSU and Southern Cal ifornia shared the title, but as the Tigers’ Chad Lavalais said, it was like splitting a winning Powerball ticket. The system worked for two teams.

A playoff system is all about settling who is No. 2 because No. 1 is usually well-defined. That’s where all this debate has been over the life of the BCS. Who is No. 2? That’s a lot of tinkering with the system to satisfy that one thing.

There will be a debate this season about No. 2.

Kansas, Oregon, Oklahoma, West Virginia? A playoff system designed to erase that Who’s No. 2 argument would push the season into mid-January.

Players would have to get ready for games 15 or 16 weeks. They already play 12 games and no one is going to want to shorten the regular season. That’s a tough load. I-AA does it but it doesn’t play on the scale of I-A.

Who affords these playoff games anyway? Surely not the families of the players or the students of the schools involved. The scalpers make out big and so do the corporate giants who can scoop up tickets at $75 to $100 and parachute in for a game. What about the airfares or long car rides?

Does the playoff give unbeaten Hawaii a chance to prove itself, or Utah of 2004 to play for the title? You actually think Hawaii can beat Oklahoma or Ohio State? And the Utah argument is out the door because that spread offense in the hands of Tim Tebow at Florida has three losses this season. You think Alex Smith and Utes would have done much better?

The only postseason model that has a chance is the plus-one. Here is the scenario: No. 2 Oregon beats No. 1 LSU and then plays No. 3 Oklahoma, which beat No. 4 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. It gives the team that was No. 3 in the BCS a chance to get in the title picture.

Is that worth another month to the season or a watering-down of the regular season? No.

Stay with the system and enjoy the process. Too often we want to fast-forward to the end and forget about all the fun in the beginning and the middle.

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