We can’t keep on as we have been, with the guardians of the BCS system tweaking the system each year to make it — they swear — better. And every year, as parity spreads through the game and there’s less to separate the top teams, the system needs more tweaking.

It’s held together by duct tape and chewing gum, and it’s leaking and creaking and coughing thick clouds of black smoke as it rattles along. It’s beyond fixing. Drive it to the scrap yard and be done with it.

This year, the system gave us an artificially created national champion that lost two games this year. I’m not taking anything away from LSU, which beat the snot out of the team that was thrown up against them. They did their part and they walked off the field with the big crystal football that will stand in their trophy case forever, proudly proclaiming that DirectTV sponsored the game.

That tells you plenty: The defenders of an indefensible system talk about the purity of the game, but they’ve got no problem selling their own trophy to the highest bidder. It’s not the national championship trophy. It’s the Coaches’ Trophy, presented by DirectTV.

But let’s not kid ourselves about what that trophy represents, especially this year when no one can say that any team stood that much above the rest that it can claim a championship after winning one game against an opponent that didn’t look as if it belonged in the Poinsettia Bowl, let alone the alleged national championship game.

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It’s a trophy for winning one game against an opponent picked by a committee and some computer programs. And just in case you think that’s a good way to pick the participants in a title game, remember that computer programs also make 10-day weather forecasts, and we all know how reliable those are.

We’ve reached the end of the road with the BCS, and unless you want to see Ohio State again next year, it’s time to scrap it. Do the right thing. Give us a playoff.

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