there appears to be a misconception regarding the miami (ohio) redhawks.

apparently, having the longest winning streak in football is not a feat to be recognized. apparently, having just one loss, on the road, in august, against a top 12 team, is not impressive. apparently, destroying the 'top' team in your conference - for the second time of the season - on the road - in the biggest game for both teams all season long - isn't something to be impressed with. apparently, having the nation's best quarterback and perhaps the nation's best offensive line doesn't mean anything.

no, i'm not saying that miami would knock off three top eight or four top 16 teams if the situation were to come upon them, but i'm saying that it could happen.

the difference between the ncaa hoops tournament and any 1-AA-style ncaa football tournament is that top teams - legit teams - will get left out of the football tournament. that is not the case in the hoops field.


and, by the way, this year's version of the bcs did get the top two teams in the nation correct. on the basis of winning percentage, on the basis of schedule strength, and on the basis of quality losses, oklahoma and lsu both had better seasons than usc. i don't care that usc got dealt a blow by having scheduled a bunch of traditionally strong teams that turned out to suck. and i don't care that human voters, who remember only what happens on a weekly basis, overrate the importance of usc's recent sexy wins. i do care that usc lost to freakin' 6-6 freakin' cal. the best team in the nation can not lose to cal.

and it also seems ludicrous to me that oklahoma, who was being hailed as the greatest team of all time on friday, is suddenly made out to be some sort of impostor. they spent a week being told "it doesn't matter if you lose to k-state...you'll still be in the title game" and they laid an egg in the big game. but they also blew out everyone in their path the rest of the season.

of course, if you want the two teams who were playing best at the time of their last game, you'd have a michigan-lsu championship.

but let's forget about this whole bcs-playoff-is the bowl system really worth it? debate. what it comes down to is this: in its current state, college football is the only major sport in which the regular season really means something. one bad game, one bad quarter can eliminate you from contention. it's the best, most compelling system in all of sports, and to change it would only hurt the sport.

i mean, who remembers who won the national hoops championship three days later?