"Reggie from 'the 619'" You're on The Pizza Parlor...

"Long time reader, First time writer, love the blog...In a playoff system, what is the reward for finishing the regular season undefeated? Isn't a playoff actually less fair because one fluke play or bad referee call could cost a team that had been undefeated a game against a team with possibly as many as 3 or 4 losses. Oh and one more thing, what if you play for a team so good that you clinch a playoff spot early, so the top players sit for the last two weeks? That could cost top players the Heisman Trophy."

-R. Bush, Los Angeles, California

The best playoff system would be eight teams (six major conference champions, two at-large bids). No undefeated team would be left out of a playoff, and a rule would be written to insure that. The implementation of Instant Replay in almost all of college football has eliminated almost all human error from entering play, but I don’t believe that is Paul, I mean Reggie’s point. If a game were to be decided by a “fluke play” it would be a result of 59 competitive minutes in which a team with three (possibly in a playoff if it won its conference) or four (highly unlikely) losses would have proven it can compete with a team that went undefeated in an entirely different schedule.

Since the playoff format is tied to conference championships which are rarely decided by more than two games, the threat of a “Week 17 rest-up” is much less likely than 6 more teams playing late season games with national championship implications. You actually receive more interesting late season games than you would in the current format. If you applied this format to this year, it would have ADDED excitement to Ohio State-Michigan, Notre Dame-Stanford, and Alabama-Auburn games as those teams would be in the playoff "bubble". This would also add weight to Conference Championship games for larger conferences like the Big XII, SEC, and ACC.

So Mr. Bush to answer your question, if the Pac Ten had adopted the same tiebreaker scenarios as the rest of college football, your spectacular game against UCLA would have been for the Pac Ten championship your status if you had lost that game both with the current BCS and a playoff would have been unclear. Even if it wasn’t, your coach’s record against your rival whom you always play last is part of his review criteria and is important for recruiting reasons. He has enough reasons to play his full team. Congratulations on your Heisman! I hope the Jets get the #1 pick and don’t take you…that would be funny.