The only undefeated team in the nation will not play for the title. Two teams that did not win their own division, let alone their conference, could. It is painfully obvious that a playoff in college football is necessary. The simple truth is that it is nearly impossible to determine who the two best teams are using the BCS rankings.

There are seemingly an endless number of teams that could make the argument they deserve a trip to New Orleans come January. Despite the arguments of some purists, like ASM's Vaughn Hines, the reason a playoff system is an inherently better system is because it avoids problems that the current system consistently falls into. For instance, the current system favors teams that lose earlier in the season. Georgia, a two-loss team, now has a better shot at playing for the title than Kansas, a one loss team, even though the Jayhawks only loss occurred Saturday night at the hands of now No. 1 Missouri. Ohio State is another example of this phenomenon. The Buckeyes lost to arguably a tougher opponent, Illinois, than West Virginia (who lost to South Florida), yet if the BCS title game were today, the Buckeyes would be on the outside looking in. The BCS may be correct, the Mountaineers may be the better team, but then again, they may not be the better team. No one knows for sure. Instead of punishing one team for losing too late in the season, why not let both teams get a chance to settle it on the field?

Another problem with the BCS is the way it unfairly treats the conferences. In a sense, it is quite the conundrum. On one hand, it is detrimental to be part of what it determines as a weak conference, meaning not one of the six BCS conferences that are guaranteed a BCS bowl birth. Hawaii is currently the only undefeated team left, yet it cannot sniff the top 10 in the BCS rankings. One would have thought Boise State’s memorable victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last year would have proven that the mid-majors can hang with the big guys, but the stigma remains. This is not to say that Hawaii is the best team in the country, but what more can they do than win every game on their schedule? There should be some way that non-members of the BCS conferences can be part of the national-championship picture.

On the other hand, within the six BCS conferences, it greatly benefits teams that play within conferences that are down during a particular year. Should Missouri fall to a tough Oklahoma team in the Big 12 championship game, West Virginia will most likely face off against Ohio State. It is no coincidence that these two teams also happen to be members of the two weakest BCS conferences this year, the Big East and the Big Ten. Is it really fair to ask members of the Big 12, the Pac 10, and the SEC to go undefeated or just lose once when they play tough games every week? West Virginia and Ohio State faced tough games during their conference schedule but also faced a few cupcakes of the likes of Syracuse and Minnesota. It seems unfair to judge teams based on their win/loss record when the strength of schedules are so unbalanced.