Shock Talk, November 5

So usually, this is the time of year to dust off the trusty “Death to the BCS” column. Well, the plan was to forego such an act in 2008, considering the annual complaints have begun to sound similar every autumn.

But then, ESPN’s Chris Berman interviewed Barack Obama on the halftime show of this week’s Monday Night Football.

And Obama wasted no time in evoking hatred of the BCS. Asked by Berman about which rule in sports he would change if possible, Obama calmly shot back: “I am fed up with these computer rankings.”

So are many others around the nation, most notably Joe Paterno’s Penn State Nittany Lions. All they’ve done is leave the field with a victory after every game this season.

Yet still, they will try to avoid an upset this weekend at Iowa as the No. 3 ranked team in the BCS – behind undefeated Alabama, behind one-loss Texas Tech.

No argument here about that. We’ve seen how the Big Ten’s undefeated champion (Ohio State) has embarrassed itself in the last two BCS National Championship games. And Penn State can’t claim to face a schedule nearly as daunting as any of the talented teams that compete in the Big 12 or Southeastern Conference.

Seriously, you think Joe Pa’s squad could come within one second of winning at Texas Tech? Think they could run the table in the SEC? Think they could even deal with collective speed of the Atlantic Coast Conference?

Likely answers: No, no and no.

So even if the Nittany Lions win out, they aren’t guaranteed a spot in the national title game. That’s the reality of the current system – just ask the undefeated 2004 Auburn Tigers how fair the BCS is. In actuality, though, keeping Penn State out of the championship game this season might be the fairest thing to do.

In an ideal system, Penn State shouldn’t be guaranteed a title spot. The Lions didn’t challenge themselves out of conference, and they didn’t benefit from a down Big Ten this season. But in that ideal “non-BCS system” (aka playoffs), Penn State should at least be given a chance to earn a spot.

With a four-team playoff, no undefeated team from a power conference would be shunned. With an eight-team playoff, undefeated schools from lesser conference would likely get to play Cinderella.

With growing parity in college football, every season brings another reminder that the upper-echelon has become less defined. This season, deep into November, it seems like three or four teams from both the Big 12 and the SEC possess the talent to legitimately win the national championship.

So how can we all let some computer program spit out the participants of the title tilt? This madness has to end.

Penn State may not be the best team in the Big 12 or the SEC. Heck, the Nittany Lions may not be the third or fourth or fifth best team in either of those leagues.

But it’d be a shame to deny Paterno a national championship shot because of the asinine BCS. Here’s hoping the Lions either get defeated, dropping them out of contention, or win by large margins, forcing their entry to the title game.

Until they lose a game, though, the spirit of the sport demands that they be given at least an opportunity to win a national championship, Auburn in 2004 being the exception.

Even Obama realizes that.