COMMENTARY

By Matt Hayes

updated 7:04 p.m. ET March 12, 2005

Maybe you've seen this already. I stumbled upon it while taking a break from digging trenches in the back yard, which explains how I spend my eight dreary months without college football. Apparently, our shameless friends at ESPN have figured out another way to overexpose a good thing. This time it's the basketball version of College GameDay, a spinoff of the wildly popular football College GameDay.

Two quick thoughts: 1) Any college production without the dimwitted yet delicious rantings of Lee Corso blows; 2) the show reinforces my belief that in college football's most polarizing argument, I'm right: The current system -- no matter how convoluted and contrived -- beats the hell out of a national playoff.

We can break down the numerous reasons why, but only one matters. A national playoff would render the regular season -- and eventually the sport itself -- meaningless. Ladies and gentlemen, for Exhibit A, I give you basketball College GameDay.

Digger Phelps is yapping about a "huge" Big East test for Syracuse and about how Notre Dame guard Chris Thomas is the type of player who can take over a game and carry a team on his shoulders. You know, all that cliched coachspeak.

Another talking head shouts, "It doesn't get much bigger than this!"

Big, huh? Syracuse beat Notre Dame by nine a month earlier. Syracuse and Notre Dame could play again in the league tournament. And if things really get wacky, the two could play again in the NCAA Tournament. That's four games between two teams in one season -- each of which could have little bearing on the national championship.

Meanwhile, every week of the college football season is a national playoff. Every game is live or die; every game-changing play or mistake is replayed over and over. Every time a team steps on the field, its season can end. When Notre Dame limped off the Carrier Dome's court with another loss to Syracuse, it was just that -- another loss. Goals still were intact, the ultimate prize still attainable.

College football is about surviving and sustaining a body of work throughout a season; college basketball is about getting hot at the right time and running the table (see: N.C. State, Villanova, Kansas). What does college basketball have other than a tournament? Judged on its regular season, the sport would rate somewhere alongside reruns of championship poker. College football, meanwhile, never has been more popular -- even without a tournament.

We can drone on about how the BCS is unfair (of course it is) and how three unbeaten teams can't fit into two championship slots (so what). But what do we really want? We are a society of winning and losing; it's just that simple. That's the beauty of college football, the sport that forces each team to control its destiny -- win or go home -- from the first play of the season.

In a couple of months, the BCS honchos will get together again to further discuss the state of the controversial series and devise this year's changes. One tweak could include a poll of selected writers and broadcasters to replace the AP poll (going to happen) or a selection committee to choose the two teams for the national title game (not going to happen).

They'll dress it up nice and present it again, and everyone will carp and complain for the next four months. Hey, it's better than digging ditches.

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