Bryan Burwell

I know I’m in trouble now.

The Bowl Championship Series computer and I actually agree on something.

This, by the way, should be considered great news for all those seething Penn State lovers, who have spent the last week bombarding me with hostile emails that begin with such colorful greetings and salutations like "Hey, Burwell you dumb @%#!!" or "Burwell, you're a bleepin', Big 12-obsessed jackass."

Bear with me while I explain.

With four weeks left in the regular season, college football’s annual quest to find the No. 1 team in the land has once again turned into an unpredictable game of subjective nonsense. No other greater sign of this nonsense manifested itself in this disturbing bit of startling weirdness.

When the BCS computer — which I loath with every fiber of my BCS-hating body — whirled, sputtered and burped out its weekly idea of what it thinks the national championship landscape should look like on Sunday evening, it decided that it just couldn’t elevate unbeaten Penn State into the No. 2 slot in its weekly rankings.

As all those belligerent Penn State fans already know, I am not a fan of the 9-0 Nittany Lions. It’s nothing personal, just my overall fear that the Big Ten Conference hasn’t done such a good job of breeding national-championship talent lately. Apparently, that Big Ten bias has crept into the BCS computer mainframe, too. I don’t know what the computer’s bias is against Penn State, but mine is quite simple. I don’t like the Big Ten. Ohio State did this to me when it got gangster slapped all over the last two BCS championship games. So because of my fear and loathing of all things Big Ten, I have normally reasonable people all across the swing state of Pennsylvania mad with me.

They might be right about all those unflattering descriptions, but it doesn’t change my belief that the Big Ten has earned my contempt. I would prefer to see Texas or Texas Tech, Florida or Alabama, USC, Oklahoma or Oklahoma State in that title game before I see another Big Ten team go to the title game and get embarrassed like the Buckeyes have the last two years.

But I will give the angry Penn State loyalists one thing. They’re right, my opinion and Ohio State’s recent ineptitude shouldn’t matter. Penn State deserves every chance to qualify for the national championship on the field and prove all the Big Ten haters like me wrong.

I have my opinions, and I’m willing to express them in spite of the anger it generates in the Keystone State. But it’s opinions (biases) like mine that create part of the massive problem with the current BCS system. Based on what's in place, even if Penn State remains unbeaten — and two other unbeaten BCS-conference teams remain out there — the Nittany Lions could be left out of the national championship party.

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And you know what? For all my hate of the Big Ten, that’s part of the problem with the BCS. So this, of course, is my annual plea for a college playoff system that will go largely unheeded by the powers that be because they prefer the current system that creates more controversy than conclusion. Here we are again, living in a world that goes against everything that sports is supposed to teach us, which is that the games should be decided on the field. On Election Day, I think it is the perfect time to remind people that presidents and politicians — not national college football champions — are the only ones who should have their fates decided by votes and computers.

Even president-elect Barack Obama believes there’s a need for a playoff system. In an interview at halftime of Monday Night Football, he told ESPN’s Chris Berman, “I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other. Get eight teams — the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion."