Time to separate pretenders from contenders

We need a playoff because it has become harder than ever to separate the contenders from the pretenders in college football. Everyone knows that Alabama was ranked No. 1 for the last month of the season, and — but for one bad quarter against Florida — it could have skated into the national championship game with an undefeated record. Utah, however, exposed its weaknesses in pass defense, with quarterback Brian Johnson torching the Tide for more than 330 yards through the air.

Only a day earlier, USC head coach Pete Carroll was quick to declare his team the best in the country after pasting Penn State. The Trojans’ defense has proven itself to be one of the all-time greats, with safety Taylor Mays’ bone-jarring hits discouraging both opponents and his own teammates from roaming into the middle of the field. But his team lost to Oregon State the week before Utah stopped the Beavers’ winning streak at two, eking out a 31-28 victory.

Texas’ Mack Brown pulled the same act a week later when the Longhorns pulled off a textbook two-minute drill to wrest away the win from Ohio State. Of course, it’s hard to feel proud of any bowl win against the Buckeyes that isn’t decided by more than 20 points. Still, Brown, more than any other coach in America, has to be wishing for a playoff right now: Texas has the Heisman runner-up at quarterback and earned a neutral-field victory against No. 1 Oklahoma.

What about Florida and Oklahoma, you say? The former still has to answer for an early-season loss to Ole Miss, a team that is coincidentally quarterbacked by Jevan Snead. Snead, you may remember, was Colt McCoy’s backup at Texas before transferring to the Rebels. At least the Gators beat a then-undefeated Alabama in the SEC title game to earn their place. The Sooners only had to steamroll Missouri, a team that went 5-3 in the Big 12 this season, to claim their conference championship.

The Utes, meanwhile, boast the only undefeated record in the Football Bowl Subdivision. They haven’t played weaklings and pushovers, either, with four wins over top-25 teams. If that doesn’t deserve a title shot, then I don’t know what does.

The best argument for a playoff system perhaps comes from another sport: college basketball. Every year, March Madness gives us a new underdog to cheer for. Last season, it was Stephen Curry and Davidson. Nailing three consecutive upsets — one over perennial powerhouse Georgetown — made the Wildcats the toast of the tournament. Imagine if we switched Division I-A basketball to football’s format. Davidson would have won the Hot Pocket Bowl in a minor upset against Gonzaga and then … gone home.

All the drama made possible by a tournament format — which allows for teams to build momentum, new stars to be born and legacies to be written — would vanish. Forget Mario Chalmers’ buzzer-beating, game-tying three-point prayer. Forget Kansas and Memphis. Instead, North Carolina would probably have won a tidy, if slightly boring, championship game against UCLA.

The great irony, of course, is that the Football Championship Subdivision (read: Division I-AA) actually employs a playoff format for its postseason contests. Sixteen teams enter, one team leaves. This year, three-time defending champion Appalachian State lost in the second round to eventual champion Richmond. Guess what? Richmond wasn’t one of the top two seeds in the tournament. One might almost think that teams can orchestrate upsets over more highly touted opponents and that fans might enjoy seeing these more.

If I have one problem with this system, it’s that the Ivy League does not permit its teams to play in the tournament. Can you imagine if Princeton made a miracle run through the Ivy League, won the FCS tournament, and there was no undefeated FBS team in the nation? We could actually lay claim to a 29th national title.